


Us and Them

by can08writer



Series: Bargaining Chip [3]
Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-04 14:07:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 66,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14594655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/can08writer/pseuds/can08writer
Summary: Major changes in the Grimes family have Rick and Carl on edge, and a mysterious child's arrival at Hilltop has the Grimes family considering the extent of what they'd do to keep their family safe. A Grimes 2.0 story





	1. Chapter 1

_**Author's note:**  I appreciate all the words of encouragement you guys have sent me in regards to my stories. Every comment is greatly appreciated, so thank you for all the feedback. Please keep it coming._

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_**Two years after Carl and Enid's marriage** _

Carl and Enid had made a comfortable home for themselves at the Hilltop. They were lucky enough to get a home in one of the FEMA trailers there as the previous occupants had left to move to the kingdom. Although it was small, it was perfect for the newlyweds who didn't have much possessions anyway.

At Hilltop, Enid resumed her medical training under the watchful eye of Dr. Carson who had delivered both Maggie's and Michonne's babies. Winston, the nurse at Alexandria, had taught her many skills, and within a year she was upgraded to a nurse herself and had her own assistant.

Being Rick and Michonne's son already gave Carl a lot of street cred, but he didn't rest on his laurels. Although he and Enid were only 18, being away from his parents gave Carl the opportunity to create his own path, and he stepped up, becoming Jesus' (the leader of Hilltop) right hand man.

Carl was in charge of the Hilltop's defense. He created watch schedules, assessed any potential threats from people or walkers, and coordinated the patrols that kept the roads between communities clear and safe for travelers.

When both of them had settled into life at Hilltop, Carl and Enid decided to start trying for a baby. They had been using various methods to prevent pregnancy as condoms were few and far between now a days, but within 2 months of trying Enid started to see signs and got it confirmed by Dr Carson that she was pregnant. They were both extremely excited and wanted to tell Rick and Michonne, but there were no telephones, and although there was a rudimentary mail system that was established they didn't want to tell them by letter. They had planned to visit Alexandria when their schedules allowed but there hadn't been a single weekend when both of them were off work long enough to visit the town, and now Enid was 5 months pregnant and showing, and Carl's parents as well as Glenn and Maggie who were the closest thing Enid had to parents, still didn't know.

In Alexandria, Rick and Michonne were also thriving with the two littlest Grimes, Judith who was now five, and Joy who was three.

Sherry, who Michonne had met while being held prisoner by Negan, volunteered to be a teacher for the children of Alexandria as well as the other communities. In the mornings Judith attended school with 7 other younger children of various ages from the Hilltop, the Kingdom, and Alexandria and they learned the basics, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The older children would met in the afternoons. Judy loved school and would come home ready to relay every detail of her day back to Rick, Michonne, and Joy. Although Joy was too young to go to school yet, she already knew her letters and how to count due to Judy being a dedicated teacher.

One night while Michonne was cooking dinner she poked her head into the living room to check on her daughters who were suspiciously quiet. Her heart was warmed when she saw the two sisters laying on the floor with a mini chalkboard in front of them. Judy's long, straight, brown hair was cascading down her shoulders and her head was leaning in close to Joy's with her curly dark brown hair. Judy had drawn the word cat and she was pointing at the letter c.

"What's this one Joyjoy?" Judy asked. Joy moved her little head closer to the board and carefully studied the letter. "C!" She shouted confidently. Judy smiled and gave her a high five causing Joy to bounce in excitement, her curls, a longer bushier version of Rick's, bouncing around her shoulders.

"Ok what's this one?" Judy said pointing to the a. "It's an a" Joy said, "and that ones a t" she added without prompting.

"Ok what does c-a-t spell?" Judy asked her, increasing the difficulty level of her lesson. Joy just looked at the word blankly. It was obvious she didn't know.

"It goes meow" Judy said, trying to make her best cat impression.

"Kitty!" Joy said.

Judy laughed. "C-a-t spells cat"

"Cat" Joy corrected.

"You'll get it next time" Judy assured her, erasing the chalk board. "Try this one" Judy said, writing b-a-t on the board.

Michonne could hear Rick coming down the stairs and she quickly motioned for him to join her in her hiding spot in the kitchen to watch the touching scene. As Judy repeated her lesson over with the word bat, Michonne leaned her head on Rick's shoulder and said "they're practicing, isn't it adorable?".

Rick smiled fondly watching his girls. "Can you believe we did that? We made these beautiful girls, both of them." Rick emphasized the word both as Judy wasn't Michonne's biological child and she probably wasn't Rick's either, but she was still theirs. They had raised her, they had protected her. She was both of theirs.

Rick moved behind Michonne, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his cheek against hers while rubbing her large rounded belly making her smile. "So when do you think we should tell Carl?" He asked. She smiled, leaning back into his chest. "The baby will be here in a month or two. If we wait any longer the baby will be here before he knows he's getting a sibling ".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick and Michonne decided to pack the girls up and visit the Hilltop that weekend. Rick had written a letter telling Carl they would be coming for a few days, but he didn't mention the reason. He wanted news of the pregnancy to be a surprise as he knew it would be.

When Carl heard that his family was coming he was relieved. Although he'd be working most of the weekend he'd still be able to sneak away for a few hours to talk and eat with them. Plus, he was excited to finally tell them the good news about him and Enid.

The next Saturday, Rick, Michonne, Judy and Joy piled into the car for the hour and a half trip to Hilltop. As they drove, the girls played their own made up games in the back seat as Michonne slid a Boys II Men cd into the CD player and serenaded Rick, as she knew all the words to every song. He, Judy, and Joy laughed hysterically as she sang 'End of the Road' and sang the deep baritone solo in her manliest voice. By the end of the song, the whole car was singing the chorus along with her.

Although they had to stop twice for Michonne to waddle out of the car to relieve herself in the woods, they made it to Hilltop in record time.

They waved to the guards who opened the gates, and they drove up to Carl and Enid's trailer. The family happily filed out and Rick helped Michonne waddle up the trailer steps before he knocked on the door.

"Just a minute" they heard Enid call from inside. Thirty seconds later she happily threw the door open and everyone froze.

"You're pregnant?" She and Michonne exclaimed at the same time.


	2. Chapter 2

"Wow! That's great!" Michonne said, hugging Enid. "I can't believe I'm gonna be a grandma!". Enid looked just as shocked. "And a new mom too! We didn't know! Did Carl know? I didn't know!"

Rick who was obviously shocked hugged Enid as well. "Congratulations" he said, "I'm so happy for you and Carl. We didn't tell Carl about ours. We wanted to tell him in person, and I know you guys have been busy and we have been too, and... well here we are".

Enid kept staring at Michonne's belly. "How many months are you?".

"Eight" Michonne said happily. "The last time we came here to visit, I didnt realize I was pregnant... what about you?"

"Five" Enid said. She then realized everyone was still standing on the porch. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude. Come in, have a seat. Hey Judy bug, hey Joyjoy" Enid said, giving the girls a hug as they entered the small house. Michonne carefully lowered herself onto the couch in the living room and Enid did the same. Joy and Judy happily plopped themselves on to the floor, and Rick took a chair from the kitchen to sit on.

"Where's Carl?" Rick asked.

"He's working most of the day today, but he said he'd come back for lunch and when he has a break. He should be here soon" she said. As if on cue there was a knock on the door.

"Umm... I'll get it" Enid said nervously, getting off the couch to open the door.

When Enid opened the door, Carl grinned broadly. He had seen the car and knew his family was there. He kissed her and then whispered "what did they say?", smiling.

Enid smiled and looked at him strangely, "they were happy, but maybe you should come in".  
Confused by Enid's hesitation, Carl stepped into his house and saw his little sisters on the floor. They both hopped up and ran to him.

"Carl!" Judy said happily as she hugged his waist. Joy attached herself to his leg. Carl picked up both his sisters and blew raspberries on their cheeks until they giggled. He then moved on to give Michonne a kiss.

"Hey m-..." Carl stopped speaking mid word. He was staring at her very swollen belly. "No way" he said shocked "you're pregnant too?"

Michonne nodded. "I guess it's just going around" she said with a smile. Carl looked at his father in disbelief.

"You're having another baby and you didn't tell me?" he asked.

Rick ran his hands through his hair "I should say the same. You didn't tell me I'm gonna be a grandpa".

Carl looked around. "This is crazy. I mean this is definitely not how I thought this would go. I mean... it's great... just... surprising".

Rick walked over to Carl and patted his back. "We're happy about your baby, and we're happy about ours, and that's that".

Michonne who had been quiet for most of the conversation said to Carl "hey I still didn't get my hug and kiss". Carl bent down to hug her and she said "congratulations dad", causing Carl to smile.

Carl grabbed another chair from the kitchen and put it next to where Enid was sitting on the couch, he then gently stroked her hand as he sat next to her. Rick's heart was warmed by the love and affection his son showed his wife.

"Do you know if it's a boy or girl?" Rick asked.

"Carl wanted to know but I want it to be a surprise" Enid said.

"I really don't mind either way" Carl said, "I just want to be prepared".

Rick nodded his head. "Same with your mom and I, we don't know what the baby is either".

"But this is cool though" Enid said "I'm actually happy. If anyone knows what I'm going through right now Michonne does. We can be preggie buddies. And boy do I have questions for you. It seems there's something new going on with my body every day."

"I'm no expert, but I can certainly help you out" Michonne chuckled holding Enid's hand.

Carl looked down at Joy and Judy. "You guys are gonna be aunties" he said to them, "like auntie Maggie and auntie Carol. And you're gonna be big sisters. Are you happy?"

Judy looked at Carl thoughtfully. "As long as I don't have to change diapers because they stink!".

Joy giggled in response.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning Carl had to leave the house early to train three new members of the road patrol team. He was going to assess how well they handled themselves around walkers, and how thoroughly they did sweeps, before they were allowed to patrol unsupervised.

He woke up just as the sun was rising, got dressed, and kissed a sleeping Enid on the head, waking her up.

"Hey baby, I'm leaving now."

Enid groaned, obviously not happy about the early start to her day.

"When will you be back?" She mumbled, her face buried in the pillows.

"Late afternoon" Carl replied, moving some strands of hair from her face. She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes, putting both hands on Carl's face.

"Love you, stay safe" she said, kissing his lips. Carl then moved down to her bare pregnant belly.

"Bye Carl Jr." He said to her belly while still looking up at her "daddy will be right back".

Enid chuckled, "it's probably a girl anyway". "You think?" Carl asked. "Well, bye Carla" Carl said, winking at a laughing Enid as he left.

He walked into the living room where his family was sleeping. Rick, who was a light sleeper, immediately opened his eyes from his spot on the floor directly under Michonne who was sleeping curled up on the couch. Joy and Judy laid curled up next to Rick on the floor, Judy's arm laying across his neck, and Joy's leg resting on his belly. Both of his sisters were wild sleepers.

Rick gave Carl a nod, untangled himself from his sleeping daughters, and got up to walk Carl outside. When they got outside on the porch Rick turned to Carl and smiled.

"So, you ready for this?" Rick asked. Carl smiled and ran his hands through his hair just like Rick usually did. "Yea. I want this, but..." Carl paused and sighed. "Dad. Can I ask you something?"

"Yea son, what is it?"

"When mom was pregnant with me, were you scared? Like really really scared?"

Rick laughed. "Yes son, I was so scared. After your mama told me, I went to the bathroom and threw up. And that was before all of... this..."

Carl laughed at that. "Gross... But I'm really scared too. I want this baby, that's not what I'm scared about. It's just... things can change so fast. What if we're attacked? What if there's another herd, or something worse? And..." Carl looked away for a moment to gather himself. "I'm worried about Enid and Michonne giving birth. I always think back to mom... It's dangerous and I can't lose either of them. Or both of them... Even with Joy being born face up, it could have been worse, it could've been something we can't fix."

Rick nodded his head. "When Michonne was pregnant with Joy I thought the same thing, felt the same thing. She was pregnant when Negan was holding her prisoner, and we didn't even know. I thought about what could have happened to her, to Joy, when that guard attacked her. I thought about your mom and how her death almost destroyed me. I was terrified Carl, but I loved Michonne, and I loved the baby, and that was all I could cling to. Things are good now, but we're always a target, there's always a threat. And I realized you have to live life in spite of all that or life isn't worth living."

Carl nodded as he looked at the rapidly rising sun. "Thanks dad".

"No problem Carl. And it will be ok, you have Enid, you have Maggie and Glenn, and you have us." Rick said, patting him on the shoulder.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Carl and the three recruits had been out all morning, patrolling the roads for walkers and clearing houses and buildings that hadn't been cleared yet.

Carl excused himself from the group to relieve himself in the woods. As he walked past a house he thought he heard shuffling, as if someone was moving quickly inside. Carl froze for a moment, thinking it may be a walker, but what he heard sounded too quick to be a walking corpse. He immediately pulled his gun and snuck around to the front of the house. He listened again for any sounds but heard nothing.

_Maybe I imagined it. Or it's an animal._

Carl was still doubting that he'd heard anything when he heard a sniffling sound as if someone was crying. The sound was high pitched, almost as if a child were crying.

He knocked on the front door of the house and the sound immediately stopped. Carl, not one to let his guard down for a moment, quickly called to the rest of the group and they came over.

"I heard someone crying in here, we have to check it out" he said. They nodded and pulled out their weapons ready to give him backup.

Carl knocked on the door again to see if anyone would answer, but there was silence. He cautiously turned the knob and opened the door with a loud creak. The dilapidated living room was full of dust and debris and seemed pretty much uninhabited. Carl entered the room with his gun up and did a quick sweep with his eyes seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He walked down the hallway into the kitchen and saw that it had obviously been ransacked long ago. All of the cabinets were empty and hanging open. He turned to go back towards the living room when he spotted a closet that he hadn't noticed before. He slowly slid the closet door back, not knowing what to expect, when he saw a walker crouched in the corner of the closet.

Carl leaped backwards in surprise, seconds away from shooting the walker in the head when he realized the walker wasn't coming after him. It was small, child sized, and it's skin had large chunks of various skin colors as if it's skin had been sewn together. It smelled horribly as any walker would, but Carl froze when he saw its eyes. It's eyes were human, almost as if it were still alive. The eyes were wide and staring at Carl in fear and it unnerved him. He took two more steps back and called the rest of the crew over. They seemed confused about why Carl had called them over to see a walker, but as they looked at the small hunched figure in the closet they all realized it was alive.

"Shit! Is that a kid?" One of them asked.

"No way, it looks creepy. Is it wearing... Skin? That's some horror movie shit."

Carl couldn't take his eyes off of the terrified eyes in front of him. He lowered his gun and reached out a hand to the small figure before him. It was obvious it was a child covered in some sort of walker skinned mask.

"My name is Carl. What's yours?" He asked.

The figure didn't move, but it's eyes flicked from his hand to his face and back again.

"We won't hurt you" Carl said. "Are you alone?"

Once again there was no response. Carl moved a little closer and the figure shrank back into the closet shaking. Carl turned his head to tell the rest of his group to step back when a quick movement made him turn his attention back to the child who had quickly pulled a knife and had it pointed at Carl's face.  
"Whoa, whoa" Carl said, withdrawing his hand. "I won't hurt you, we're trying to help. Are you hungry?" He asked.

The child's eyes looked at Carl and then at the people behind him.

"Take a step back" Carl ordered, and his crew reluctantly moved. "I have food in my bag" Carl explained. "I'm going to reach in and give you an apple ok?". The child didn't answer but watched Carl's bag closely, the hand holding the knife lowered slightly.

Carl reached in the bag and pulled out a red apple, offering it to the child. The child watched the apple for a few seconds and then quickly snatched it from Carl, but it didn't eat.

"We have a place where you'll be safe. Do you want to come with us?" Carl asked.

The child still didn't speak, but lowered its knife a little more. "C'mon, it's ok". Carl said, offering his hand again.

The child still held its knife but lowered it completely and looked at the apple longingly. It then took a bite, and Carl got the message that the child hadn't eaten in a while. It quickly devoured the apple and then looked back to Carl.

"C'mon, I have more at home" Carl said, and finally the child reached out its hand and held Carl's. Carl led the child out of the closet and was shocked by how much the child looked like a walker.

It was wearing tattered clothing dotted with walker blood stains and covered in holes. The child seemed extremely thin and weak, and it's face was covered by a creepy mask of walker skin with holes cut out for the eyes, mouth, and nose.

The other members of Carl's group gasped at the sight as Carl led the child out of the house. "Can I take your mask off?" Carl asked. The child didn't speak but its grip on Carl's hand tightened and Carl figured that was a no. "Ok" Carl said. He led the child to the group's pickup truck and said "here you go, just climb in". Carl looked down at the child and caught it's eyes rolling up in its head before it crashed to the ground with a thud.


	3. Chapter 3

After Carl left, Enid rolled out of bed as much as she could with her rapidly growing belly, and padded into her kitchen. Rick was already awake with Joy and was playing patty cake with her on the floor. Judy was sleeping nearby, and Michonne looked like she had just woken up as she was rubbing her face sleepily.

"Morning everybody" Enid called.

"Mornin' Enid" Rick and Michonne called simultaneously. Joy came over and hugged Enid's belly giving it a kiss. "Morning baby!" She yelled to Enid's belly, causing them all to laugh.

"You guys hungry? Pancakes are my specialty" she said.

"Let me help you" Michonne said, struggling to get off the couch. Rick got off the floor and pulled Michonne to her feet, kissing her good morning before she and Enid went to make breakfast.

"So how are you holding up?" Michonne asked, taking the eggs out of the ice box.

"Honestly? My back hurts, my feet hurt and I feel fat" Enid replied, laughing as she spoke.

Michonne smiled, "so basically you feel like every other pregnant woman ever"

"Yea I guess. How are you?" Enid asked.

"Everything you said, plus I have to use the bathroom every other hour and I can't scratch my itches, or put on shoes or see my toes." Michonne said.

"So, more fun things to look forward to" Enid jokingly said, mixing the eggs, milk, and flour.

"This part is hard" Michonne admitted, "but once you have this other human being to hold, and love, and have it love you back, it's worth everything".

"I know. And I love this baby already. I'm just... Scared. This is the scariest thing I've done ever, dealing with walkers included. I'm scared I might not make it... Carl told me about his mom, what he had to do... I'm scared for him too... If something happens to me..." Enid just stopped talking.

"I know it's scary. I know you can't help thinking of the what ifs, but the benefits are worth the risks Enid. And you have a pediatrician here who can take care of you, keep you safe. And you have Carl, and Maggie, and me to help you through it. You can do this."

Enid nodded. "I know, it's just nice to have someone who's going through this with me, someone who understands. I know this whole situation is a little weird but I'm glad you're here Michonne."

Michonne smiled. "I am too. Can I?" Michonne asked, gesturing to Enid's belly. Enid nodded and Michonne leaned down so her mouth was right next to Enid's belly.

"Hi baby, it's your grandma. You be good to your mommy in there. No kicking, ok?" Michonne said to the baby in a soft soothing voice.

Enid laughed, and suddenly Michonne felt her own baby kick, causing her to hold her own belly. "Is yours kicking?" Enid asked. Michonne nodded her head and took Enid's hand, guiding it to where her baby was kicking.

"Wow! that's really strong!" Enid said as she felt the fluttering in Michonne's belly.

"Just more fun things to look forward to" Michonne told her, smiling. "You be good to your mommy too" Michonne said rubbing her own belly. She then looked at Enid, "Cmon, let's finish breakfast".

Xxxxxxxxxx

The crew drove back to hilltop as quickly as possible with the unconscious child in the backseat. Carl took the opportunity to remove the child's mask and saw that it was a little boy about five years old, the same age as Judy. The child had shaggy brown hair that looked like it had never been cut, and his face was sunken in as if he were perpetually starving. Carl also noticed the scratches and bruises on the child's face and it broke Carl's heart. The kid looked like he was in some sort of fight and he'd lost.

The child was breathing shallowly and Carl wanted to get the child to a doctor as quickly as possible. When they arrived they pulled the car up to Dr Carsons trailer and Carl scooped the boy up and ran inside. He couldn't help but notice how light the little boy felt.

Carl laid the child on the medical bed and Dr Carson looked on in shock. "Where did you find this child?" He asked while feeling the boys pulse.

"He was hiding in the closet of a house. He had a mask made out of walker skin on his face."

"He was conscious when you found him?"

"Yea, I gave him an apple and then he fainted when I brought him to the car."  
The doctor took the boy's blood pressure and then opened his filthy blood stained shirt to reveal the boys ribs and sunken in stomach, and more cuts and bruises.

"God" he said "what has this poor boy been through? It looks like starvation and dehydration is what made him pass out, but these bruises are serious too."

"Will he be ok? He'll wake up right?"

"We'll have to see. I'll put him on an IV and see if that wakes him up."

Carl nodded and sat on the corner of the boys bed.

"I can tell you when he's up" Dr Carson said.

"No. The kid was terrified and I was the only one he kind of trusted. I need to be here when he wakes up."

"Ok, I'll send someone to tell Enid where you are."

"Thanks Dr. Carson" Carl said.

Xxxxxxxxxcxx

Three hours later and with lots of fluids via an IV, the little boy opened his eyes. Although he still didn't say a word, his eyes were wide with fear.

"Hi remember me?" Carl said as non threateningly as he could. "I'm Carl. You were feeling sick, we brought you to our Doctor."

The little boy's eyes flitted around the room.

"You're safe now. No one will hurt you. Can you talk?" Carl asked.

The little boy nodded his head slowly.

"What's your name?" Carl asked.

"Omega" the boy said in a raspy voice.

"Omega?" Carl asked, registering the unusual name. "Um... Ok. Hi Omega. Where did you come from?" Carl asked. The boy now stared down at his hands and refused to look Carl in the eyes.

"Did something happen to your mommy? Are you lost?" Carl asked Omega, but it was clear that the boy was done talking. Dr. Carson came back in the room and examined the boy again. Afterwards he pulled Carl over where the boy couldn't hear them.

"Well fluids seemed to do the trick. Now he needs to eat a solid meal, nothing too big, it could put his system into shock. Maybe a few spoonfuls of something if he can keep it down".

"Is there a reason why he isn't talking? I mean he said his name is Omega, but he won't talk anymore"

"Trauma. This kid is obviously traumatized and something has happened to him. He may talk with time and patience."

"Ok" Carl said. "I'll take him home, see if I can get him to eat something."

"If he starts showing any signs of distress bring him back here" Dr Carson warned.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Dr. Carson gave the ok that Omega could leave the infirmary, Carl took his hand and led him to his home. Rick, Michonne, and Enid had surprised and shocked looks when Carl walked through the door with a small child.

"Hey, this is Omega. He's gonna stay here for a little bit until we find out what's happening with him. I found him when I was patrolling and he needs a good meal and some love." Carl explained.

The other adults just looked on unsure of what to say, but Judy and Joy happily approached the boy.

"Hi I'm Judy" she said. "I'm Joyjoy" Joy chimed on. The boy shyly looked from Judy to Joy. For once he didn't seem afraid, and his face softened. Judy took Omega's hand and shook it. "You wanna play?" Judy asked.

"Wait a minute Judy" Carl called, "we all have to eat dinner first". Carl then looked to Rick and Michonne and gestured with his eyes that he was really talking about Omega. The boy needed food and quickly.

"Judy, can you take Omega to the kitchen and show him where to wash his hands?" Michonne said quickly. "Ok" Judy said, leading Omega away with Joy trailing behind.

"What is going on with that kid?" Enid asked Carl as soon as the kids were out of earshot.

"I found him out there all by himself, he was hiding in a closet and he pulled a knife on me. He had a mask made out of walker skin on his face and he's covered in cuts and bruises. Dr. Carson said he's traumatized and he needs to eat." Carl looked at Enid. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you first about bringing him back here but he needs someone, and you know what it's like being out there alone. I can't even imagine for a kid his age.

"You said he pulled a knife on you" Rick said. "Is he dangerous?"

Suddenly Judy yelled "mommy!" From the kitchen. Rick and Michonne hopped up and ran to the kitchen, Rick reaching there first.

The girls were standing by the sink with the faucet still turned on, and Omega was crouched in the corner the same way he was in the closet. "What happened Judy?" Rick asked, nervously eyeing the little boy.

"When we put on the water he ran away" Joy said, answering for her sister.

"I think he's scared of water" Judy added.

"Maybe he's never seen a working faucet" Enid said, and everyone paused to consider this.

He was about five years old, the same age as Judy, and he had been born after the world fell apart. It was possible he had never lived in a community with electricity and running water, he had lived out in the wild his entire life.

"It's ok" Carl said to Omega "it's ok, come on" he said, reaching out his hand. This time the boy didn't hesitate to take Carl's hand. Carl led him over to the sink that was still running.

"Did that startle you?" Carl asked. The boy just stared at the running water, almost mesmerized. "This is a sink, water comes out of here. When you're thirsty or you want to wash your hands you turn the knob here and water will pour out".

Carl slowly brought the boy's dirty hands over the sink. "Can I wash your hands?" Carl asked. The boy didn't respond but he looked from Carl to the running water.

"Judy pass the soap" Carl called and Judy reached over bringing the bar of soap closer, but she took it upon herself to rub the soap on the boys hands. The boy looked on in wonder as Carl moved his now soapy hands together to create suds. Carl then moved the boys hands under the sink to wash the soap off.

"There you go, your hands are clean" Carl said to him.

The boy examined his cleaned hands as if a magic trick had been done, causing Judy to laugh.

"You really like washing your hands don't you" she chuckled, and suddenly the boy's mouth turned up in a small smile, the first one they'd seen from him.

Carl had an idea. "Judy can I talk to you for a sec?" He said, and she walked over to him while Rick, Michonne and Enid started handing out plates for dinner.

"Judy, Omega has been through a lot and he doesn't have a mommy or a daddy or a brother and sister like you do. Can you do something really important for me?" Carl asked.

Judy nodded excitedly when she heard the word important. "I need you to be Omega's friend. Be nice to him and let him play with you and Joy."

"Ok" she said "I can be his friend"

"Thanks Judy" Carl said, patting her on the shoulder.

Everyone sat down and Enid scooped some tuna casserole onto everyone's plates. She was careful to give Omega only a few spoonfuls, she knew he had been starving and couldn't eat too much.

Omega looked around the table as the others ate. He then looked down at the utensils in front of him seemingly confused. Judy who was sitting next to him reached over and grabbed his fork, putting it into his hand.

"Look Omega, it's a fork. You eat like this" she said, stabbing some noodles with her fork and putting it into her mouth.

The boy watched Judy and then held his fork as if it were a weapon. He roughly stabbed his noodles, the fork stabbing the bottom of the plate with a loud bang. He then shoved the food in his mouth quickly and stabbed some more noodles.

"Whoa, slow down" Carl said gently. "If you eat too fast you'll get sick".

The boy looked over at Judy and she purposely put food into her mouth with Omega copying her.

Michonne looked at Judy and Omega and smiled. It was heartwarming how quickly Judy took to the boy, and how much more relaxed he seemed around her. It was as if he'd never seen other children before.

"So are you guys really leaving tomorrow?" Carl asked "it feels like you just got here, and I barely got to see you."

"I know. Same here. But we can only stay for the weekend." Michonne said sadly. "Alexandria is starting a new expansion project to add more housing because the population is growing... obviously..." Michonne said, looking down at her belly.

"But after the plans are finalized we can come back for a little while" Rick added. And maybe you and Enid might consider moving back to Alexandria" Rick said hopefully, "we really miss the both of you"

Carl smiled at his father's attempt to convince him to move back. "I know dad, and we miss you guys too, but the hilltop is our home now."

"Yea, I know" Rick sighed.

Rick really wanted to ask Carl about what he planned to do with this wild little boy that he picked up, but he couldn't with the boy sitting at the table. It wasn't that he didn't trust the child, but it was obvious he was with another group that they knew nothing about, and someone had obviously mistreated this boy.

"Daddy, is Omega gonna live with us now?" Judy asked, asking the question he was just thinking.

Before Rick could answer, Enid said "Omega is gonna stay with Carl and I for while. At least until he's feeling a little better. But when you come back here to visit you can see him. Would you like that?"

Judy looked over at Omega, who was listening to the conversation intensely. "Yes" she said, "Omega is my friend. You're my friend right?" She asked him.

Omega looked at Judy and gave the smallest hint of a smile. He then nodded his head slightly.

"He's my friend too" Joy said, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.

"Ok, he can be your friend too" Judy relented.

Omega just smiled shyly.

There was a knock at the door. Carl got up to answer it, letting Jesus into the house.

"Hi Carl, I saw your parents' car out front and thought I'd stop by. And I also wanted to talk to you about what happened today, but I think that can wait" Jesus said.

"They're in the kitchen, we're having dinner, why don't you join us" Carl said, gesturing to the kitchen.

"Ok, sure" Jesus said and he walked into the kitchen. "Hi every-" Jesus stopped and sucked in a breath when he saw Michonne. "I didn't know you guys were expecting!" he said excitedly.

"what are you talking about?" Michonne asked with a straight face.

"What are you trying to imply?" Rick asked Jesus angrily, copying the intensity that Michonne had.  
Jesus froze. "I didn't... she isn't?..." he asked confused.

Rick and Michonne busted out laughing at the same time and a relieved smile broke across Jesus' face.

"Don't do that to me, I've seen what the two of you are capable of" he joked. He walked over to Michonne and hugged her and then Enid. He then shook Rick's hand and greeted Judy and Joy.

He stopped in front of Omega. "Hi, my name is Jesus, what's yours?" he asked.

Omega just stared.

"His name is Omega" Carl cut in, "He... he's just getting used to things."

Jesus nodded in understanding and took a seat at the table. "So you Grimes' are trying to take over the world huh?" Jesus joked. Rick chuckled.

"So how have things been over here?" Rick asked Jesus.

"Pretty quiet actually, partially because Carl is doing such a great job with our road patrol. Seeing a walker is a novelty now." Jesus said, nodding in Carl's direction.

"What about people?" Michonne asked.

"Well, Omega here is the first person we've spotted in 10 months. It seems like there's less people wandering the roads nowadays. Which is why I'm so curious about where you come from Omega. Do you have people nearby?" Jesus asked.

Omega's eyes moved down to his plate and he stopped eating, his lower lip beginning to tremble.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset" Jesus said, feeling badly.

"Um... I think it's time for the little ones to go to bed" Michonne said, seeing that Omega was on the verge of tears.

"Rick can you put Joy and Judy to bed? and I'll give Omega a bath before he goes to sleep." Michonne said, quickly taking control of the situation. "I'll help" Enid said, also getting up.

"C'mon girls" Rick said, rising from the table "say goodnight to Jesus and Carl"

"Good night!" they said in unison, Joy running to hug Carl before they followed Rick into the living room. Enid held out her hand to Omega and he took it, following Enid and Michonne to the bathroom.  
Carl and Jesus were left alone in the kitchen.

"So what's the story with the child?" Jesus whispered so that Judy and Joy in the next room couldn't hear.

"He had a mask of walker skin on when I found him, and he didn't make that mask himself. He was with people, and I think they beat him with all the scratches and bruises he has. I don't know where those people are, but they have to be around somewhere." Carl explained.

"Do you think he's a threat?" Jesus asked, "he or his people?"

"He was alone. He did pull a knife on me, but he was just scared. I don't think he's a threat, but I would advise the people on gate duty to be extra vigilant, you never know" Carl said, and Jesus nodded in agreement.

"How's the Gregory situation?" Carl asked, and Jesus sighed. Gregory was the former leader of Hilltop, a cowardly man who immediately bowed to Negan's demands and gave away half of his people's supplies to appease Negan. When Jesus suggested Hilltop assist Alexandria and the Kingdom in fighting against Negan, Gregory had refused, but the people of Hilltop rallied behind Jesus anyway and helped take Negan down, making Jesus their leader. Gregory still lived in Hilltop, but he was bitter about being removed from power and he had begun to gather followers who were trying to get him back into power.

"My sources have told me that he's been riling up some folks and there are people who agree he should still be leader. He has meetings in his home but I'm not sure what they're discussing."

"Do you think he'd be stupid enough to try something?" Carl asked.

"Knowing Gregory... yeah" Jesus said, "that man is a snake. But I'm not too worried, it's only a small handful of people who agree with him"

Carl nodded. "I'll keep an eye out for him too. Just in case."

Jesus smiled and patted Carl on the shoulder. "What would I do without you" he said.

"Fall flat on your face" Carl responded, laughing.

"Well I better get going, I have a few more rounds to make" Jesus said. Carl led him into the living room where Rick just got the girls tucked in on the floor.

"Good to see you Rick, and congratulations to you and Michonne. You're a lucky man" Jesus said.

Rick got up and shook Jesus' hand. "I am, and I'm thankful for it every day. Take care". He said, as Jesus walked out the door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the bathroom, bath time wasn't going as planned. Omega was fine until Enid turned on the water in the tub, and he began to freak out. He pulled away from Enid, making a beeline for the door.

"Wait, wait" Michonne called to him, quickly standing in front of the door so he couldn't leave. She slowly got on one knee in front of him so she was eye level with him.

"I know you're scared, and it's ok. You don't know us. But we're only trying to help you. I won't hurt you. Enid won't hurt you. Rick, Carl, Judy, and Joy won't hurt you. You can trust us. Ok?"

The boy's eyes darted around the room and then finally fell on Michonne's.

"We just want to wash you, and give you some clean clothes so you can get some rest" Michonne said calmly. "Is that ok?"

The boy didn't respond, but continued looking into Michonne's eyes and didn't make a further attempt to escape.

"Can I help you take this shirt off?" Michonne asked "If it's ok, nod your head".

Surprisingly, the boy responded and nodded. Michonne quickly glanced at Enid, excited that he answered. She carefully helped him out of his torn, bloody, walker shirt and was shocked by how skinny, scratched, and bruised up his small body was. Enid's mouth dropped open before she gained her composure again.

_No wonder this kid is terrified_  Michonne thought.

"Ok, that was good, can you take the rest of your clothes off so you can get in the tub?" Michonne asked. The boy looked from Michonne to Enid.

"We can step out if you want" Enid said, seeing that he was uncomfortable.

"I have an idea. My son loved bubbles when he took a bath, would you like some bubbles in your water so you can play while you take a bath?" Michonne suggested.

The boy didn't seem to know what bubbles were, but he understood play. He nodded slightly. Enid reached under the bathroom sink and took out some dish detergent. She squeezed some underneath the running water and bubbles immediately began to spread throughout the bath water.

The boy's eyes opened wide in wonder. Michonne knew they had gotten him.

Omega reached in the water and scooped up some of the bubbles, squeezing them in his hands and smiling.

"Wanna get in now?" Enid asked.

Omega nodded again, and the women quickly helped him out of his torn, stained pants and into the tub. He happily scooped up more bubbles, seemingly mesmerized. It was the happiest they'd seen him yet. While he was distracted, the women quickly worked on cleaning him, Enid scrubbing dirt and blood off of his arms, while Michonne scooped water and shampoo into his hair, watching as brown dirt ran out of it.

Soon the water in the tub was cloudy with the dirt that was washed off of the small boy.

Enid went to grab a towel and one of her own shirts for him to wear. They didn't have any little boy clothes, and Carl's clothes were way too big for him, so they dried him off and draped him in one of Enid's t-shirts.

Now that he was clean, Omega seemed a little more present, looking both of them in the eyes. "Do you feel better?" Enid asked him. The boy nodded again.

"Where do you want him to sleep?" Michonne asked Enid. "I have no problem with him sleeping on the floor with us in the living room. I know your room is really small, and Judy will be thrilled".

Omega's eyes lit up at Judy's name. To their shock he whispered "Judy".

Both women froze and stared at him. "Did he say..." Enid started. "Do you want to sleep in the living room with Judy?". He nodded again.

Michonne smirked. "Someone made a friend".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick tucked both girls in on the floor, sitting between them.

"Daddy tell us a story" Joy said, "It's my turn". Rick smiled. He alternated who got to pick the story that he would tell that night. Judy got to pick the previous night, and Joy was eager to get her turn.

"You're right, it is your turn Joyjoy. What story do you want me to tell tonight?" Rick asked.

"When Carl saved us!" Joy said eagerly. Carl, who was sitting on the couch, smiled proudly.

"You heard that story last time!" Judy complained.

"It's my turn. I pick!" Joy said stubbornly. Rick smiled. She was stubborn just like her mommy and he loved every bit of it.

"Ok Joyjoy, I'll tell you that story again and then it's sleep time". Joy nodded and snuggled deeper into her sheets in anticipation.

"When you were a baby, your mommy and Carl took you outside of the walls for the first time..." Rick started

"I was sleeping!" Joy cut in.

"Yes, you were sleepin'. But then, bad men appeared and your mommy and Carl had to hide so they wouldn't see them."

"And I woke up and cried cried cried!" Joy laughed.

"Yes you woke up and started cryin', so they had to run. Your mommy and Carl hid in a cabin to hide from the bad men, and me and Uncle Daryl were so worried about them. We got in a car to look for you but we couldn't find you anywhere. We got out the car and searched the woods, and..."

"Then you found Carl!" Joy interrupted again.

"Why don't you tell the story if you're not gonna let daddy talk" Judy muttered bitterly, mad that she didn't get to pick the story that night.

"It's my turn!" Joy said again, pointedly giving Judy the side eye. She looked so much like Michonne that Rick had to stifle a laugh. Rick looked over at Carl and saw him silently laughing as well.

"Then we found Carl, and he led us back to the cabin where you and mommy were. We went to the road to wait for Uncle Daryl, but the bad men found us. But Carl saved us from them and we all went home. The end" Rick ended.  
"Daddy, how did Carl save us?" Joy asked. Rick quickly glanced at Carl. He had skipped over a lot of details in that story like Michonne getting shot to distract one of the men from shooting Carl, and Carl shooting both men in the head.  
"I uh... I scared the men and they ran away" Carl threw in from the couch. That answer seemed to satisfy Joy, for now.  
"Ok, time to sleep" Rick said, but just as the words came out of his mouth, Michonne and Enid came into the living room with a much cleaner Omega, who was wearing one of Enid's shirts.

"He wanted to sleep in here with... uh... Judy" Michonne said. Rick looked up quickly, eyeing Omega. Michonne quickly shot him a look that said:

Calm down, they're five

Rick relaxed a little, but still eyed Omega. Enid laid out a sheet a few feet away from Judy for Omega to lay on.

When he laid down, she tucked him in.

"Goodnight guys" Enid said to the children. "Goodnight" Judy and Joy responded.

"Goodnight Omega" Judy said, and he smiled in response.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After the kids had fallen asleep, Rick and Michonne decided to go for a night walk as they sometimes did even in Alexandria. Carl was still awake and volunteered to keep an eye on the kids while they were out. The night was warm but there was a cooling breeze and the stars were bright in the cloudless sky.

"I love nights like this" Michonne murmured.

"I remember" Rick said, immediately causing her to smile. It was a night like this when the two of them snuck into the back yard of their home to make love like horny teenagers. And it was probably how this new baby was conceived.

Michonne elbowed Rick in the ribs "shut up" she smirked. "Yes ma'am" he responded.

The walked, hand in hand, down the streets of the Hilltop, waving to others who were still out and about. There were torches every few feet that acted as street lamps, that allowed people to move around in the community at night.

"Come this way" Rick said suddenly, pulling Michonne's hand as he led her to the horse stables.

"Why are we going to the stables?" Michonne asked, confused.

"Why do you think?" Rick asked, smirking. He opened the stable door and she slowly stepped inside. "I just wanted some alone time with my wife" Rick said.

"Your very pregnant wife, who is not liking the smell of horse poop and pee" Michonne said disgustedly.

"Oh... I was tryin' to be romantic, didn't really think of that" Rick said sheepishly.

"It's ok, luckily I love you more than my disgust at the stables" Michonne said, pulling Rick in for a kiss. He happily kissed back, with one hand holding the back of her head, and the other on her waist. She reached up and wrapped both arms around his shoulders, pulling him in closer. He moaned into her mouth.

Rick moved both hands to her breasts and began to rub and squeeze them, knowing that they were sensitive because of the pregnancy.

Michonne moaned loudly and Rick could feel her nipples harden in his hands. He moved his mouth down to her neck and began sucking on the spot right below her ear. By now he knew all the right buttons to push and he was pushing as many as possible.

"Rick" Michonne panted into his ear. Her calling his name was music to his ears. He reached down, slipping one hand into the front of her stretchy pregnancy pants, finding her spot and rubbing it. Her breath hitched and she leaned her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him as he rubbed her. Soon she was involuntarily moving against his hand, trying to get relief from the sensations she was feeling.

"Its ok baby, let go" he whispered, and she came on command, just from his voice. She panted and leaned against him until she caught her breath, looking up into his eyes.

"That was great" she sighed.

"Anything for you" he said, kissing her again.

"Now its your turn" she said, reaching for his belt buckle, but he stopped her.

"I came out here for you, not me. I wanted to give you some relief. You're carrying our child and I know it's hard on you, and I just wanted to show you I appreciate everything you're doing. Don't worry about me, I'm good."

Michonne looked up at Rick and smiled. "I kinda love you right now" she said, kissing him.

"I always love you, baby" he said, kissing her back. "Now c'mon before someone sees us".

"You know, we're getting a little too old to be sneaking around like this" Michonne said laughing.

"Speak for yourself!" Rick said "I'll never be too old for this".

The two of them snuck out of the barn and headed back to Carl's trailer, not noticing Gregory watching them from around the side of the barn.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

After Michonne and Rick got back, Carl headed to his room with Enid. She was already in bed but she wasn't sleeping. Carl changed into a pair of boxers and snuggled into bed next to his wife.

"What are we gonna do with this kid?" Enid asked "Are we adopting him?"

"Do you want to?" Carl asked.

"I mean, we already have a baby on the way and I don't know if I can handle that one. I can't imagine suddenly having two children to take care of. But..."

"But what?" Carl asked

"I kinda see myself in him. I was like him when I first got to Alexandria. Being alone can do things to your head, and I understand where he's coming from. I do want to help him."

Carl nodded. "I do too. I imagine if something happened to us, to this town. If that was Judy wandering around, I would want someone to take care of her. Take her in, y'know? That's why I want to do this".

Enid nodded. "Ok, lets do it. We can do this. We can be parents."

Carl leaned over and kissed her. "We can do this."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Enid had fallen asleep and Carl was on the verge of sleep when gunshots erupted from the walls. They both leaped out of bed and Carl shouted "stay here" before rushing into the living room. Rick and Michonne were also awake, visibly startled by the gunfire. "Stay here" Rick mumbled to Michonne, as he and Carl took off towards the gates.  
Michonne grabbed her katana, and Enid had her gun in hand. All the children were awake and Michonne said to Judy, "take Omega and Joy into Enid's room and close the door. If you hear any loud noises in here you lock it and get under the bed ok?" Michonne asked her.

"Ok mommy" Judy said, grabbing Joy's hand. Omega quickly followed behind them.

The two Grimes women locked the door of the trailer, turned off the lights, and waited.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Rick and Carl rushed over to the gates with their weapons drawn. Other members of the Hilltop's defense team also arrived from their various homes. "What's going on?" Carl yelled up to the guards on the gates.

"Walkers! dozens of them" the guard yelled.

That didn't make sense to Carl, they hadn't seen a herd in so long, why would one be coming their way now?  
One of the guards who was shooting suddenly stopped firing. "What the fuck?" he yelled "are they running away from the bullets?"

Carl quickly climbed up on the gates, and sure enough, some of the walkers were behaving strangely, hiding behind trees and dodging bullets. Carl immediately knew what was going on.

"Stop firing!" he yelled "Stop!"

Soon there was silence, as everyone turned and stared at him. "Those aren't walkers. Those are people with masks on".

Sure enough, as soon as the gunfire stopped, the walkers stopped hiding and stood up again. Then, one of them stepped forward.

"Stop firing at my people! I am Alpha, you will return Omega to me or you will die!"


	4. Chapter 4

 

"Go get Jesus" Carl ordered one of his men, but Jesus had heard the commotion and was already on his way over.

"What's happening?" he asked immediately, looking down at the figures that looked so much like walkers.

"Send out Omega now" a female voice demanded.

"We would be happy to return the boy, but we have a few questions first" Jesus yelled. "I will come down there and talk to you, and when we're done I will give the boy back".

"I will not discuss anything. Return the boy. He is ours." Alpha demanded.

"Why is he so bruised up?" Jesus asked "And how did you find him here?"

"You will return Omega now!" Alpha said, raising her voice.

"We won't. Not until you explain what happened to him, and where you came from" Jesus responded.

"I will not leave Omega here. The deaths of your people are on your hands if you don't return him".

"Wait" Carl whispered to Jesus. "Let's ask him if he wants to go back before we start a war".

Jesus nodded. "Go ask him". As Carl turned to return to his house, Jesus yelled down to the intruders "Wait a minute".

Alpha answered, "we will wait for Omega's return".

Carl quickly ran back to the house, knowing Michonne and Enid would be on full alert. He knocked on the door, rather than barging in because he didn't want to get shot, stabbed or both.

"It's me!" he yelled.

Enid swung the door open. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Omega's people have come back to get him" Carl said quietly to Enid and Michonne. "Omega!" he called.

The boy opened the door to the bedroom and stepped out.

"Omega. Your people are here to get you. Do you want to go with them?"

The boy's eyes widened and he looked scared again. He glanced over at Judy and Joy and then back to the adults. He then shook his head no. Carl got down on a knee in front of the boy. "Why don't you want to go back? What did they do to you?" Carl asked.

The boy shook his head no again and his eyes welled up with tears.

"It's ok" Carl said. "We won't let them get you, ok? You can stay with us"

Judy came over and wrapped her arms around Omega's shoulders, patting him on the back. "It's ok. You're one of us now." she said. He wrapped his arms around her and cried.

Carl turned back towards the women and whispered "The person in charge said they'd attack if we don't return him".

Michonne sighed, running her hand down her face. "How many people do they have?"

"I can't really tell, it looks like a few dozen, but there could be more. They look like walkers... I gotta get back to the gates, but be prepared for anything. Lock the doors."

The women both nodded their heads, and Enid reached over and kissed Carl gently. "Stay safe" she said.

Michonne rubbed Carl's back as he turned to go back outside.

Carl rushed back to the gates and to Rick and Jesus who were eyeing the masked people suspiciously. They turned when they noticed him.

"Omega doesn't want to go back with them. He's terrified of them. I'm  _not_  giving him back."

Rick slowly nodded, realizing that his son was serious and had already adopted Omega as part of his family. Jesus looked apprehensive, but he also could see that Carl had made up his mind.

"Ok" Jesus said. "But what do we tell  _them_?" He nodded towards the visitors at the gate.

"Do you mind if I talk to them?" Carl asked. Jesus shook his head and Carl moved to the end of the wall.

"Omega has said he doesn't want to go back to you. He is safe here and we will keep him as long as he wants to stay. There is no reason for our people to fight. We are interested in learning about your people. If you come in here peacefully we can talk."

The woman who called herself Alpha took a step forward. "So you refuse to return Omega to his people." She said coolly.

"He doesn't want to go back! He is terrified of you and I want to know why." Carl said angrily. "What did you do to that kid?".

Ignoring Carl, Alpha said "your fate is your own doing" she then backed away and disappeared into the trees surrounding Hilltop, her people following her until there wasn't a person in sight.

xxxxxxxxcxxxxxxxxx

Carl, Jesus, Rick, Michonne, and Enid all sat in Carl's kitchen after putting the children back to bed.

"We need to find out more about these people" Jesus said. "They just appeared out of nowhere and they threatened us. It seems like they have enough people to be a real threat if they get in the gates."

"And what's with the walker faces?" Enid asked. "It's just creepy".

"It could be camouflage" Michonne said "the same thing we did by covering ourselves in walker blood. So they can walk among the walkers unnoticed."

"If they're taking the time to skin walkers and wear their faces it probably means they spend a lot of time with walkers. Or else what's the point?" Rick added.

Everyone was quiet as they thought.

"We need to find out more information from Omega. He's the only one that can tell us what to expect from them." Jesus said.

"Tomorrow. We'll find out tomorrow" Carl said. "In the meantime we need to be on high alert. Our entire defense team needs to be on call tonight."

Jesus nodded. "I'll see that it happens" he said as he got up to leave.

"I'll be at the gates in a minute" Carl said. Carl turned to his family after Jesus left. "I know you guys were gonna leave today, but it might be safer if you stay put. We don't know where those people went and you don't want to meet them out on the road."

Rick nodded and Michonne sighed.

"I need to be out there tonight with my team" Carl explained.

Rick looked slightly uncomfortable. "You... you want me to go with?" He asked awkwardly. Carl smiled a little, knowing his father felt strange not being out there helping, and for not being in charge.

"No dad we got this" Carl said "you guys should get some rest, it's late."

Rick nodded his head the way he did when he felt rejected, and his face involuntarily pouted. Michonne and Carl exchanged a knowing look. They knew Rick was a little hurt his son didn't need him.

"I'll be back in the morning hun" Carl said to Enid. She nodded and he hugged her before walking out into the night.

Michonne rubbed Rick's back after Carl left. "He'll be ok" she said to him reassuringly. She looked over at Enid who was rubbing her eyes. "Go ahead back to sleep Enid" Michonne ordered her. "I know you're on infirmary duty tomorrow. We'll probably be up for a while. We'll keep watch."

Enid smiled and nodded and slowly made her way back to her room.

Michonne waddled back to the couch and slowly lowered herself on to the cushion. Rick plopped down beside her. They didn't say anything, they just held hands and waited.

Xxxxxxxxxx

A few hours after dawn, Carl made his way back home. As he opened the door he smelled coffee and something cooking on the stove. He saw Omega and his sisters were still sleeping in the living room as he crept past them into the kitchen. Rick, Michonne, and Enid were all awake and sitting at the kitchen table. They looked up as he walked in looking exhausted.

"All clear out there" Carl said, answering the question he knew they were thinking. He plopped into a chair, and Enid poured him a cup of coffee. "Thanks babe" he responded.

All of them suddenly heard movement coming from the living room. The kids were awake. Soon Joy sleepily made her way into the kitchen still rubbing her eyes. She made her way over to Rick and laid her head on his lap.

"Mornin' sleepy head" he said. She didn't answer but she climbed into his lap, resting her head on his shoulder. She wasn't a morning person.

Judy entered next, with Omega not far behind, still wearing Enid's oversized shirt. "Mornin' daddy" Judy said, giving him a hug. "Mornin' mommy" she said, going over to Michonne. She then proceeded to give everyone at the table a hug. Then, to everyone's amazement, Omega went around and hugged everyone too.

Enid and Carl looked at each other in surprise before Enid wrapped her arms around Omega and returned the hug. When Omega made his way over to Carl, Carl hugged him and felt how skinny and frail the little boy was. It seemed Omega had accepted them overnight, and realized that they really weren't going to hurt him.

After the embrace, Carl looked down at the little boy who's large brown eyes were looking back into his. "Omega" he said, "we need to talk to you, about your people. Is that ok?"

Omega didn't answer, his eyes immediately went to the floor. "It's ok to tell us. We won't send you away, we won't hurt you. You're one of us." Carl said.

The little boy's eyes slowly made his way back up to Carl's. Slowly he nodded.

Michonne quickly motioned for Judy and Joy to go back into the living room, but Judy crossed her arms and refused to go. "I want to stay here with my friend" she said stubbornly.

"I know, but you can see him after we're finished talking. Go keep an eye on your sister" Michonne said, with a tone that let Judy know there was no arguing about this.

Judy huffed and then reluctantly returned to the living room with Joy.

Carl, who was still sitting in his chair, leaned down so that he was eye level with Omega. "Where do you live?" he asked gently.

The boy glanced over at Rick, Michonne, and Enid before whispering in a hoarse raspy voice "forest". Carl was shocked at the boy's voice, it sounded as though he was unused to using it. Like he had never spoken louder than a whisper before.

"What forest?" Carl asked, but he immediately knew that was a foolish question. He doubted the boy had any maps of his home, and even if he did, he doubted he'd be able to show them where his forest was.

"Would you know how to get to your forest from here?" Rick asked. Omega shook his head.

"Where's your parents?" Carl asked Omega, who was now fidgeting with Enid's shirt that he was wearing. Omega glanced up, looking confused. He slowly shook his head no. "No parents?" Carl asked. The boy continued to shake his head no.

"Who is Alpha?" Carl asked. The boy's eyes widened and fear crept across his face. "It's ok" Carl said, "It's ok, you can tell us".

"Alpha" the boy whispered "She is Alpha. I am Omega."

Everyone else at the table had to lean forward just to hear the boy speak. Carl thought he would say more, but that seemed to be as much of an explanation as he would give.

"Is Alpha the leader of your people?" Carl asked, trying to coax more information from the frightened boy.

He nodded again. "She is Alpha".

"Did Alpha hurt you?" Carl asked.

"All the uppers hurt the lowers" Omega said.

Carl looked to the others for help. He had no idea what the boy was talking about.

"Are the uppers the people in charge?" Enid asked, slowly making her way around the table towards Omega. "Is Alpha an upper?"

Omega nodded again. "Alpha is  _the_  upper"

"And you're a… lower?" Carl asked.

"I am  _the_ lower. I serve the Alpha."

Carl breathed out loudly. He was starting to understand the kind of society this boy came from. His name, Omega, seemed to mean he was on the bottom of the social ladder. And everyone over him could pick on him. He was basically Alpha's slave boy.

"You're not lower than anybody" Carl said to Omega passionately. "No one has the right to hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you.  _We_  won't." Carl said looking around. "What they did to you was wrong. Do you understand? We will never make you serve anyone."

The boy's eyes returned to the floor.

"Omega, we will protect you. But we need to know some things about your people so that we can keep you safe. Do they carry guns like we do?" Rick asked.

"No" Omega said "We have wood weapons. We have clubs, spears, knives."

"Why do you wear masks?" Enid asked.

Omega seemed to unconsciously move his hands to his face, rubbing where the mask would be.

"Masks make us free. The walking ones let us stay with them when we have masks. It lets us be wild".

His answer once again baffled those sitting at the table.

"Do you live with the… walking ones?" Michonne asked.

The boy nodded. "Alpha says it is what we were supposed to be. We are living because we are wild with the walking ones, not tame with the living ones. She says, living ones eventually die, but walking ones live forever. Our masks make us like the walking ones. My mommy made…" Omega suddenly stopped mid-sentence, as if he realized he was talking too much. Tears bubbled up to his eyes.

Carl put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's ok. What did your mommy make?"

"Mommy made my mask" he said, his whispered voice trembling. "She made it for me before… she challenged Alpha."

Carl's heart dropped. He could tell the walker skin mask the boy was wearing probably meant a lot to him, but they had discarded it while he was in the infirmary. From the boy's words and his trembling lip Carl could guess what happened to Omega's mother.

"Will Alpha try to hurt us?" Rick asked.

"Alpha will kill anyone who challenges her" Omega said sadly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few hours after the kitchen table conversation, Enid was off to the infirmary to begin her shift, and Carl after taking a two hour nap was back on wall duty to the dismay of Rick and Michonne.

"You just got here" Michonne said, taking in Carl's red exhausted eyes.

"And I'll be back" he responded, imitating her response in the days when she'd go on week long trips to look for the Governor.

She rolled her eyes. "Carl…"

"I'm ok, I have a job to do" he said stubbornly.

Michonne looked at Rick as if saying  _tell him something._

"When you get back, just try to get some rest" Rick said, trying his best not to order Carl around. He knew very well that Carl was a grown man, but he couldn't help worrying about his son.

"I will dad" Carl said, leaving the house.

He made his way back to the gate where the shift had just changed and many people were heading home to sleep. He caught up with an exhausted looking Jesus who looked as tired as Carl felt.

"Headed home?" Carl asked. "Yea" Jesus said, gonna catch a few hours of sleep and then I'll meet you back out here. There's been no change and no sightings of Walker People".

"Walker People?" Carl asked, chuckling.

"Yea, Mario named them. It's catching on."

Carl chuckled and lifted a hand to say goodbye to Jesus, when a yell made him spin around back to the wall.

"Walkers!" someone yelled. "Real ones… a herd!"

Carl and Jesus both climbed up on the wall to see a massive herd of walkers headed their way. There were tens of them, maybe a hundred, maybe more. There were more walkers than they had seen in the past 3 years combined.

"Oh my God" Jesus said. "Wake everyone up and tell them we're on lock down" he yelled to some of the people on the gate.

Carl turned to one of his men. "Get everyone armed and all the children in the main house until further word" he commanded. The man ran off to do what he said.

Carl turned to Jesus. "It's them, the Walker People. Omega told me they live with walkers. They can walk among them. They're probably mixed in with the crowd."

Jesus' eyes got big. "Everyone get down, we don't know what we're getting int…"

Carl looked on in horror at the spear that stuck out of Jesus' chest.

 

_**A/N: The Whisperers in my story are OOC from the Whisperers in the comic book. I put my own spin on them and their story line. If you are enjoying this story please comment. I got one comment for the past three chapters and honestly it does not make me feel like posting my work on this site. So if you are in fact reading this, please let me know.** _


	5. Chapter 5

"Jesus!" Carl screamed, catching him as he fell to the ground. Jesus looked down at the spear in shock, seemingly mesmerized by the blood pouring from his chest.

"Jesus, you'll be ok" Carl said, "look at me."

Jesus' blue eyes flickered up to Carl's face.

"You'll be ok. Help!" Carl yelled to someone, but there was now a steady rain of arrows and spears coming over the wall, and people were taking cover. Another guard, Timothy, crawled over to where Carl and Jesus was.

"Help me get him to Dr. Carson" Carl said, and each of them took one of Jesus' arms to drag him to the infirmary.

Jesus moaned in pain and made sounds like he was trying to say something. "Shhh" Carl said, "don't talk", as a spear landed a few feet away.

"Carl…" Jesus gasped, every breath seeming to take so much effort "in… charge…now" he huffed.

Carl, still dragging Jesus, looked down at his friend and realized he wasn't going to make it.

"Wait" Carl said Timothy, and he crouched down, held Jesus' hand, and leaned in closer to Jesus to listen to what he was saying.

"leader" Jesus said, and then his eyes rolled up in his head and he went limp.

Tears poured down Carl's face. He felt Jesus' neck and felt no pulse. Carl let go of Jesus' hand and grief threatened to overcome him, when a more practical part of his personality took over.

_We're under attack, Jesus is dead, there is no leader. You have to protect the people of Hilltop, you have to protect your family, you have to protect Enid. Get it together Carl, you can cry later._

Carl quickly took out a knife and put it through Jesus' head to prevent him from turning. He took a deep breath and turned to Timothy. "Put Jesus' body in a house, we'll deal with it later. Go door to door and tell everyone to stay indoors. If children aren't at the big house by now, keep them where they are, we're on lock down." Timothy nodded and dragged Jesus off with difficulty.

Carl snuck back towards the wall and tried to rally some of the people hiding there. "We're going to let them throw as many spears and arrows as they want!" he yelled, "they'll run out. They don't have an unlimited supply. Once they stop, we open fire!" the people on his defense team nodded their heads, and pressed themselves flat against the wall where they were out of the range of spears. In the distance, Carl could see others trying to limp their way to the infirmary. People were injured. He knew Enid and Dr. Carson would be busy trying to save people's lives.

Suddenly Carl spotted Rick running towards the wall, dodging spears as he ran. As much as Carl didn't want his father in danger, he was relieved that Rick was there. Rick made it to the wall and crouched down next to Carl. Rick immediately noticed something was wrong and Carl was trying to keep himself under control. Rick knew Carl too well. Rick's facial expression said everything he was thinking.

_They're back. I'm here for you son. Are you ok?_

Carl avoided Rick's eyes and his silent question and said "We're going to wait them out. When the spears stop coming, we fire."

Rick nodded, agreeing with the plan. He knew they had plenty of ammo to take most of the walkers and walker people down. Ever since Negan had been defeated, Eugene had been increasing his skill with weapon and bullet making. Alexandria now produced bullets for most types of handguns as well as for automatic weapons. They traded the bullets with the Kingdom and the Hilltop. Alexandria was the center of weapon making, the Hilltop was the center of food production, and the Kingdom was known for their horses, a valuable commodity for trade and travel as gas was harder and harder to find. Each town had a specialty that made them valuable to the other two. It allowed commerce and cooperation between the communities.

"Where's Jesus?" Rick whispered, and Carl's dark expression immediately told him everything he needed to know. A shocked look crossed Rick's face, but he knew he couldn't talk about what happened right now. Carl needed to be strong and he was holding on by a thread. Rick nodded his head and the two of them sat side by side quietly.

After 5 minutes the spears stopped coming over the wall as regularly. Carl knew it was time. He held up his fist in a signal to the defense team to watch him, he then silently signaled to get ready. They all grabbed their weapons. He opened his fist in a signal to fire, and simultaneously everyone rained down bullets onto the massive crowd of walkers at the gates. The real walkers either fell down dead or continued pounding at the walls, but the people who were mixed in began to run.

"Pick them off!" Carl yelled, aiming his gun at the back of a running walker person, shooting them in the back of the head. He then targeted another who looked like a rotting walker but was carrying a club. "Look for weapons!" Carl yelled, "that's how you can tell them apart!".

Rick stood next to Carl, taking out two more of the walker people. A third threw a spear directly at Rick which luckily hit the wall that Rick was hiding behind. After a few minutes, it was clear that the only things left around the wall were real walkers and dead bodies, but many of the walker people had escaped into the woods.

"Keep vigilant! They are out there and this isn't over. I'm going to check the infirmary and see what our casualties are. We'll have a town meeting in a few hours, and another team will come to relieve you from your posts." Carl said. Everyone nodded, and Carl and Rick hurried towards the infirmary. As they jogged, Rick noticed Carl wiping his eyes discreetly. He put his hand on Carl's shoulder, stopping him.

Carl turned towards him. "No. I can't… not right now" Carl said. Rick nodded and they continued on. As they approached the infirmary there was a line of people surrounding it, many with minor cuts and grazes from spears and arrows, but some with more serious wounds that were in need of attention. One woman had a whole spear sticking out of her thigh. If these people were outside, Rick was nervous to see what was happening inside.

They squeezed their way past the weary people and into the infirmary which looked like a war zone. The beds were packed and blood was everywhere. Dr. Carson was doing CPR on a man that had an arrow in his eye, but it didn't look like he was going to make it. After a minute of trying, Dr. Carson stopped CPR and put a knife through the man's brain. He looked up and saw Rick and Carl.

"We need help in here" he said, moving on to another patient that was slowly bleeding out. "I at least need you to remove the dead bodies to make room for the living" he said, nodding in the direction of the man he was just trying to save. "If we don't get this under control we may have walkers in here and outside in a few minutes".

Rick went to pull the man off the bed so another person could lay down, but Carl ignored Dr. Carson and said "Where's Enid?"

Dr. Carson who was putting pressure on a bleeding wound in someone's side said "Behind the curtain. She's doing surgery."

Carl immediately went to the curtain which was just a sheet hanging in the corner of the room, and cautiously peeked behind it. There was a woman laying on a gurney, unconscious. Blood was everywhere, and Enid was stitching a huge wound in the woman's upper arm. It looked like her arm had been flayed open. Although this was a dire situation, Carl smiled to himself. Enid had been practicing her stitches ever since they moved from Alexandria. Winston, a nurse that had been rescued from Negan's compound, had taught Enid many skills and stitching was one of them. Now she was using it to save this woman's life.

"Where's my gauze?" Enid demanded, not looking up from what she was doing. Carl was busy watching the scene and didn't respond. Enid quickly glanced over and saw that it was Carl and not her nurse's assistant Amy.

"Carl" Enid said, turning back to her patient, "what is happening out there? All of a sudden people started flooding in here with arrow and spear wounds. Are we under attack?"

"We were" Carl said "they're gone for now". Enid took her last piece of gauze and used it to try to soak up some of the blood around the wound so she could see inside better. "This woman had a spear in her arm. It hit an artery. I took it out but she's not under anesthesia, she could wake up any minute. I need to close her up fast, and I need gauze now".

Carl immediately turned to get Enid what she needed but she saw Amy, her assistant hustling back with a bucket of gauze. Amy nodded to Carl as she slipped behind the sheet to help Enid. Carl realized that the infirmary needed more helpers and he ran off to recruit more of the townspeople to be assistants.

In the meantime, Rick was trying to remove the dead from the infirmary and do walker control. He dragged the man that Dr. Carson had been working on to another room, and then did the gruesome job of searching for others in the crowd at the infirmary who may have passed away unnoticed. As he walked through the crowd he spotted Michonne on her knees doing CPR on a woman on the floor. He immediately ran over, angry that she was there.

"I told you to stay in the house with the kids!" Rick snapped at her, practically yelling in her face, his stress at the whole situation showing. Michonne continued pumping the woman's chest, she then leaned down, held the woman's nose and breathed into her mouth filling her lungs with air. Michonne ignored Rick as she continued pumping the woman's heart. Suddenly the woman took a small breath on her own. Michonne stopped and watched as the woman took another. A smile slowly spread across her face. Her eyes then moved over to Rick and her smile faded. "Help me up" she demanded, holding out her arm. Rick reached down and helped her lift herself off the floor.

"I know you're stressed, but don't ever talk to me like that again" Michonne said, staring into Rick's eyes. "I'm helping out. I'm safe. The kids are at the big house and I'm where I'm needed."

Rick looked into her eyes and calmed down. He had never yelled at her before, but seeing her out of the house and in the middle of the chaos going on at the infirmary scared him.

"Sorry" he mumbled "I know".

She reached out to touch his arm to comfort him and then immediately waddled off to see if Dr. Carson needed assistance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two hours later, most of the Hilltop was gathered in a meeting room at the big house. The only people not there was Dr. Carson who was still attending to the wounded in the infirmary, and the people on watch on the wall.

Most people had noticed that Jesus was nowhere to be found and Carl had to explain what happened to some people who had asked, but he now had to officially address it, and he hadn't had time to register it himself. He took a deep breath, steeling himself against the tears that threatened to sneak out of his eyes.

"We were attacked by the same people who were here yesterday. The walker people." Carl explained. "We have many casualties, Dr. Carson told me thirteen deaths in total, including…" Carl's voice broke in emotion. "Including Jesus, who got hit with a spear". The room was silent.

"Before he died, Jesus told me that I was in charge, and I will take on that responsibility until we have time to vote in an election. But until then, we need to rally together to help everyone get through this loss, and we need to have a plan to fight back." Carl paused, and before he could continue speaking Gregory stood up.

"How do we know Jesus left you in charge?" he said loudly, addressing his words to the crowd around him "Did anyone else hear him say this?"

Carl looked at Gregory in shock, surprised by the tone of his words. Carl quickly recovered and angrily said. "Actually, yea. Timothy was right there when he said it."

Gregory turned to Timothy who was sitting a few chairs away. "Well?" Gregory asked him.

"I… I didn't hear him say anything" Timothy said, looking down. "He was just breathing hard."

Carl was speechless at Timothy's words. Timothy had been on the Hilltop's defense team for a year and had never once hinted at disliking Carl or being disloyal.

Gregory took the opportunity to speak again. "I find it hard to believe that Jesus wanted Hilltop to be led by an 18 year old boy. We all know you have contributed a lot here Carl." Gregory said in a slightly condescending manner "and you are in charge of Hilltop's defense, but that still didn't stop this attack, and the deaths that resulted. We need someone more experienced to lead us."

Before Carl could say anything, Rick leaped up from his chair. "And who would that be? _You_?" Rick said, pointing in Gregory's face. "What exactly have you done for the Hilltop since your people stopped following you? What do you contribute? Nothing. Carl may be 18 but he has more leadership abilities and more combat abilities than you'll ever have. The only thing you're known for is rolling over for Negan like a dog. And I bet that's what you'll do for these walker people too."

Carl put his hand up towards Rick, warning him to stop talking. Michonne, who was equally pissed off and glaring at Gregory put a hand on Rick's arm, silently telling him to calm down, and Enid who was sitting up front looked like she wanted to strangle Gregory.

Rick slowly took his seat, and Carl diplomatically continued. "Like I said, after this is over we can hold an election for a new official leader. But Jesus put me in charge, at least for the interim, and together we can handle this threat. This isn't the time for us to be at each other's throat…"

Gregory quickly continued. "I'm not comfortable with that, and to be honest I'm slightly suspicious. I find it suspicious that Rick and Michonne just happened to be here this weekend, Carl just happened to find this walker people boy, and when the walker people attacked us because we are holding one of their own, Jesus just happened to die leaving Carl in charge. With Rick, leader of Alexandria, here to assist his son of course. First of all, why wasn't the boy returned to his people to begin with? We would have avoided this mess in the first place!"

Carl was starting to get angry. "He wasn't returned because they were abusing him!" Carl said, raising his voice. "I'm not going to return a child to his abusers".

"So thirteen people had to die because of this one child who isn't even one of ours?" Gregory yelled, addressing the crowd. There was a mumble amongst the crowd and Gregory smiled slightly. He enjoyed being the center of attention, and he knew he had everyone's attention now.

"Gregory just shut up and sit down" Enid said, barely controlling her anger "before you make yourself look like more of a fool."

"Oh and can we now address the obvious?" Gregory said, still on a roll. "It seems the Grimes family is multiplying like rabbits, and growing in power every day. Two babies on the way, total control of Alexandria, and now total control of the Hilltop? All we need is one of the Grimes in the Kingdom and they have a monopoly on all of us!". At those words the mumbling of conversation turned into a roar as people turned to their neighbors to agree or disagree with what was said.

Gregory, enjoying the conversation, glared at Carl as Carl glared back.

"We are not going to let you turn us against each other" Carl said, bunching his hands up so they didn't shake in rage. Rick was silently seething from his seat but he reluctantly decided to allow his son to fight his own battle. Michonne's gaze didn't leave Gregory and she had a death grip on her katana. Enid was staring at Carl with a look that said 'if you say the word we'll all jump him'.

"You are trying to divide us when we need to come together. I'm not going to address the vileness you just threw at me and my family, because it's not about us, it's about everyone. We are going to have a funeral tonight for those we've lost, and I want all of you to know that the Hilltop defense team is working on a plan to take out the walker people as we speak. I will continue to update the residents as new information comes in, and we will do everything in our power to prevent an attack like this again. In the mean time we need to stay united against all things and people that would tear us apart." Carl directed the last sentence at Gregory. He then stepped down from the platform, signaling the end of the meeting. Carl reached out, grabbing Enid's hand, and Rick stood up taking Michonne's hand, and the four of them immediately left, leaving the people to talk.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

That night, there was a large bonfire made in the center of the town, and all thirteen casualties, including Jesus, were cremated together. As the bodies burned, the townspeople stood around in silence, remembering the people and thinking about what lay ahead.

The entire Grimes family was there, including Judy, Joy, and Omega. They all held hands, comforting each other. Carl, who was holding hands with Enid and Michonne took comfort from the two women who he knew had his back no matter what, and he ignored the stares of the people who he now recognized as Gregory's followers.

Carl noticed that Omega was receiving angry stares himself, and Carl quickly motioned for Omega to come over to him and he placed the boy between himself and Enid, both of them wrapping their arms around him. Carl tried to make it as clear as possible that Omega was now a Grimes.

After the funeral, everyone went back to their own homes. Before Carl could leave, Timothy appeared in front of him.

"Um, Carl? Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked shyly.

Carl stared at Timothy in disgust. "Why?" he snapped. Enid, who was standing next to Carl, stared Timothy down.

"I… have to talk to you about… what happened" he said, looking at Enid. "Can I talk to you alone?".

"No" Carl said. "Whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of my wife."

Timothy nodded, looking down. "Gregory threatened me. He… he knows things about me… things he said he'd tell if I didn't do what he wanted. He told me to say I didn't hear Jesus say that you were in charge. I'm sorry…". Carl rolled his eyes.

"But Gregory also sent me here to tell you… he said that he's willing to talk to you… to compromise about leadership. He said that he has many followers and if you try to lead Hilltop on your own you'll be met with opposition. But if the two of you lead together, you can get things done for everyone's benefit."

Enid looked at Timothy in shock. "Who the hell does Gregory think he is? He's gonna try to blackmail his way to the top? Fuck him!"

Carl smiled slightly at Enid's outrage. He slipped an arm around her waist to comfort her because he could see she was getting angrier by the second, but Carl also couldn't believe Gregory's boldness.

"Why didn't he come to me himself? Are you his errand boy now?" Carl said to Timothy.

"He… he and his followers are about to have a meeting at his house. That's where he is." Timothy said. "His followers don't all agree with him, some of them follow him because he has dirt on them. He goes around watching people and finding out things about them to get what he wants. But he is powerful, and a lot of people are on his side."

Carl turned away from Timothy. "You can go now, you delivered your message."

Timothy walked away, and Carl turned to Enid. "What do you think?" he asked.

"Like I said, fuck him!" she repeated. "He tried to make it seem like we have a plan to take over all the communities. Like we're gonna breed everyone else out. He disrespected us and was a smug jerk about it. There are more people who respect you then follow him. You shouldn't worry about a disgruntled group of people when the majority are with you."

"But if the two of us lead together, all of the people will be with us. There won't be a disgruntled group." Carl said.

"Carl" Enid said, looking him in the eyes. "There will  _always_  be a disgruntled group. It doesn't matter what you do. Gregory won't be happy unless he is the sole leader of the Hilltop. You know that."

Carl nodded. "But it doesn't hurt to try does it? I hate Gregory as much as you do, but he has led Hilltop before. He does have more experience in terms of how Hilltop works, and I have more experience in terms of planning and strategy. If the two of us come together, Hilltop will be better off for it."

Enid shook her head. "Carl, I don't trust him for a minute."

Carl nodded. "Neither do I. But I'm gonna go to this meeting and see what he has to say."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Carl walked up to Gregory's house and knocked on the door. He could hear people milling about inside. Finally, another member of Hilltop's defense team, Yana, opened the door and her eyes got wide. "Um… Carl! What are you doing here?". Carl quickly brushed past Yana, hurt by her betrayal.

_How many more of my people secretly work for this jerk?_

Carl slowly made his way through the house, getting a good look at the rest of Gregory's followers. Some of the faces he was surprised about, but others he wasn't. There had always been a small group of people who didn't like how quickly Carl had risen to power at Hilltop, especially with Rick being a leader at Alexandria. He just didn't realize how many people weren't on his side.

Carl spotted Gregory in the living room, talking to two young women. The way he was staring at them made Carl feel sick. He was definitely checking them out. Carl made his way to the living room, catching Gregory's attention.

"Carl!" Gregory said, acting surprised as if he didn't ask Carl to come. "I'm so glad you decided to come by. Let's go to my office where we can speak in private, it's a bit crowded in here." He said, gesturing to his followers. Carl immediately understood what Gregory was really saying.

_All these people are on my side._

Carl was livid, but he followed Gregory into his office. Gregory sat at his desk, and Carl sat in front of the desk. Carl couldn't help but feel like a kid sent to the principal's office, and he was sure that was the way Gregory wanted him to feel.

"Tea?" Gregory asked, pouring himself a cup. Carl ignored the question.

"What did you want to discuss?" Carl asked, cutting to the chase.

"Well, I think the points I brought up during the meeting are valid, and those people who follow me agree as well. The Grimes family does have a lot of political power, maybe a little too much. It would look better if the two of us put our heads together and work together for the future of Hilltop." Gregory said, pouring Carl a cup of tea anyway.

"And you're willing to work together? I've never known you to be a man who willingly shares power."

Gregory smiled. "Yes, you do know me well Carl. And I admit, I do like being in charge. The people followed Jesus because they truly liked him. He was charismatic, brave, a people person, a warrior, a leader that could rally everyone to fight for a single cause. He had some traits that I didn't have." Gregory said, sipping his tea.

"But you have some traits that I don't have too. You're brave, you're strong, you're a warrior. As you know, fighting isn't quite my style. And I have traits that you don't have. I'm charismatic, I'm a people person, I'm a leader. If we work together, we can be for each other what the other is lacking. Together, we can be what Hilltop needs." Gregory said, leaning back in his chair.

Carl stared Gregory down. "If that's what you wanted, why did you start with that bullshit during the meeting? Why didn't you just say what you're saying to me in private?"

Gregory shrugged his shoulders. "I know what the people want. They want drama, they want excitement. I only said what they were thinking, and it made them pay attention. My little speech tonight brought more people to my side, and if that didn't happen, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

Carl stared Gregory in the eyes. As much as he hated to admit it, Gregory was right. They did each have traits that the other lacked, but Carl still didn't trust Gregory for a second.

"I don't trust you. I know that you want to be leader. I know that you try to blackmail people to make them do what you want. I can't lead with someone I don't trust." Carl said.

Gregory took another sip of his tea. "Getting out of this situation with the walker people is in everyone's interest, including mine. I wouldn't do something that would jeopardize that. Whether or not you trust me, or I trust you, is irrelevant. We both have people who trust  _us_. If we join forces, we can defeat the present threat, and then we can worry about each other later."

There was silence for a minute as Carl thought.

"Look, if you're still on the fence you don't have to make a decision tonight. Enough happened today and we both need time to decompress. But let's at least toast to the  _possibility_  of joining forces."

Gregory held up his cup of tea, encouraging Carl to do the same. "To new alliances" he said, clinking Carl's cup. Carl didn't repeat Gregory's saying, but as Gregory brought the cup to his lips, Carl did as well.

They both took a sip and put their cups down. "Well" Gregory said, suddenly happier for some reason. "I'll let you go home now and think about my offer. I really think it's best for all of us." Carl stood and walked out of the room without another word. He squeezed past Gregory's followers who were still staring at him, undoubtedly wondering why he was in Gregory's home after the public display seen at the meeting.

When Carl left the house it was dark outside, and because of the attack very few people were out on the street. The bonfire from the funeral was still burning and a few people were around tending to the flames as they continued to consume the bodies, but besides that the streets were empty.

As Carl walked, his eye began to get blurry. At first he thought he was about to cry, but he realized he couldn't clear the blurriness no matter how many times he blinked. The blurriness turned to dizziness and suddenly everything around him was spinning.

_Whoa… what?_  Carl thought, but he realized even his thinking was blurry. He couldn't form full sentences.

_Poison… he… poison?_

Carl immediately put two and two together and realized he'd been poisoned.

_Infirmary…_

Carl tried to head for the infirmary but his legs felt like jelly and they immediately gave out. Once he fell he could see two people heading towards him as if they were waiting for this to happen. As they approached he tried to explain what was happening.

"Gregory… poison…" he whispered.

"Yea, we know" a voice said, and he immediately recognized Timothy. "Just pass out already"

Carl tried to fight the poison, tried to will himself to stay awake, but his body was shutting down system by system. The last thing he remembered was the men laughing as they dragged him away.


	6. Chapter 6

After the funeral, Michonne and Rick had come home immediately to put Joy, Judy, and Omega to bed as it was late. Enid and Carl stayed around to comfort people afterwards as expected, especially with Carl now being the leader of Hilltop.

Michonne mentioned she was feeling a bit sore, so as she took a hot shower, Rick tucked all three children into their sheets, and Judy excitedly reminded Rick that it was her turn to pick the story tonight. Rick was shocked that the children were unfazed by the violence and death that surrounded them. Today, despite everything that happened, was just another day in the reality that was their life.

"What story would you like to hear Judy?" Rick asked, clearing a piece of loose hair from her face.

"Tell me what Lori was like" she said.

Rick smiled. Carl had explained to Judy long ago that she and him had the same mother, Lori, and she had died when Judy was very little. They hadn't given Judy any of the more sobering details of Lori's death, that she had died giving birth to Judy, that Maggie had to cut Judy from her body, and that Carl had to shoot Lori in the head to prevent her from turning into a walker. Rick knew that Judy did deserve to know the full story at some point in her life, and wasn't looking forward to explaining it to her.

"You are a spitting image of her" Rick started. "She had dark brown hair just like you, she had brown eyes just like you, and she was very beautiful, just like you."

Judy nodded, staring into Rick's eyes. "Was she brave like mommy?" she asked.

Rick thought for a moment, truly considering Judy's question. "Yes. Yes, she was brave just like mommy" Rick replied. Rick thought back to Lori's decision to continue with her pregnancy, knowing that the future was unpredictable, and begging Maggie to give her a C-section with no anesthesia, knowing it would kill her, just to save her baby. Lori may not have been a fighter, but she was brave.

"She was brave in her own way, and she tried her hardest to protect Carl, and you."

"Did Lori have me too?" Joy asked, causing Rick to chuckle.

"No Joyjoy, you were in mommy's belly, just like this new baby is".

"Daddy, is Lori with Jesus now?" Judy asked. The question stunned him, and for a moment he didn't understand which Jesus she was speaking of, but he realized she meant Jesus the person.

"I don't know" he answered honestly, "but I hope so."

"My mommy is with them too" Omega offered softly, startling Rick who almost forgot he was there.

"I bet she is" Rick said, patting Omega's arm. "Ok, time to go to sleep now. Goodnight."

Rick turned off the light in the living room, and made his way to the bathroom where Michonne was, and he could hear the water running. He knocked once and then opened the door. She was in the shower, the warm water creating steam that fogged up the mirror.

He quickly undressed, resting his gun on the sink, next to her katana which she always had with her because of the young children in the house.

He moved the shower curtain and slowly entered the shower. She was standing under the spray, her waist length locs dripping water that continued in streams down her naked body. He could immediately tell she wasn't ok.

He turned her around and her eyes were closed. Despite the water from the shower he could see tears streaming down her face.

"Come here" he said, pushing her up against his chest, "let it out". She wrapped her arms around his waist and silently cried into his chest. He held her, not speaking a word. Rick knew that she was close to Jesus, more so than he was. She had respected how Jesus had taken Carl and Enid under his wing when they had first moved to Hilltop, and she felt indebted to him and Ezekiel for helping Rick save her when she was kidnapped by Negan.

After a few moments she spoke. "It's not just Jesus and the others we've lost today, it's just everything. We're never going to be safe. There will always be danger and I fear for this baby. I fear for Judy and Joy and Carl and Enid and their baby too. And Omega… Gregory won't rest until we give him back. And after what Gregory was saying at the meeting… I just have a bad feeling. This isn't over, and I feel like our family is in danger."

She sighed, but Rick knew she wasn't done.

"I told Enid that the risks of having a baby now was worth the benefits. I believed it when I said it to her, but… I dunno… I'm older now, older than I was when I had Joy, and the older you are the more risks. I could die."

"Michonne…" Rick started.

"No. Rick." She said, looking into his eyes. "I  _could_. It's a possibility. I know that. That wouldn't stop me anyway. I don't know what point I'm trying to make. I just have a lot of things going through my head right now."

Rick reached down and placed both hands on Michonne's large belly. "I know you're scared. I know we're not safe. I know there are risks with you having this baby. I do know that. But all we can do is our best… Judy just asked me about Lori, she asked me if Lori was brave like you."

Michonne looked up at Rick, her eyes wide. "I told her yes, that Lori was brave like you. She did everything she could to bring Judy into this world. She died for Judy, and I know you have that same spirit. Our children will be ok because we both have that spirit."

Michonne rubbed her hands over her belly and nodded. Rick gently turned her around and reached for the soap, rubbing it on Michonne's back and legs which he knew she couldn't reach. When he went to massage her back she moaned.

"That feels so good. I've been sleeping on a couch for 3 days, I don't know how much more I can take. It's like a torture device."

Rick chuckled, "Imagine the floor"

"Imagine having a bowling ball strapped to your belly 24/7 that also is pressing on your lungs and bladder" Michonne threw back.

Rick knew when to shut up. "Yea, you win".

After the shower, Michonne and Rick waited in the kitchen for Enid and Carl to come home as the children slept in the living room. When Enid finally arrived without Carl, Rick was immediately on alert.

"Where's Carl?" he asked. Enid angrily flipped her hair from her face. "He went to Gregory's house for a meeting. I told him not to, but he wouldn't listen."

"Gregory's house?" Michonne said, shocked that Carl would even consider it. "A meeting about what?"

"Gregory wants to share power with Carl. I guess so they can be co-leaders or something like that. It's bullshit if you ask me." Enid said, plopping into a chair.

Rick agreed. "When did he go to this meeting?" Rick asked.

"Maybe 15 minutes ago?" Enid asked.

"If he's not back here in a half hour, I'm going to get him." Rick said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Carl could hear the crunching of leaves around his head. It was so loud, as if the crunching was coming from inside his head. The sound confused him. He shouldn't hear leaves in his bedroom. Without opening his eye, he moved his hands to reach over to touch Enid, and realized his hands were tied.

His eye snapped open, that realization shocking his brain as if someone had dumped cold water on him.

_Gregory… poisoned me…_

The area that he was in was fairly dark and full of shadows. It was hard for him to see, partly because of the dark and partly because the poison was still affecting his eye somewhat. He could tell he was outside, in the forest. He could smell mud and dirt, and fresh air, and fire. There was a fire nearby. He spotted it a few feet away, the orange flames looking like a blur to his eyes. He tried to locate the source of the crunching he'd heard and jumped almost out of his skin when a walker appeared in front of him.

He let out a yelp and tried to move backwards but realized his legs were tied too.

"Calm" a female voice whispered. "Be quiet".

Carl immediately realized it was a walker person, and he simultaneously noticed the other walker people that were in the forest around him. Dozens of them. The only way he knew they weren't real walkers was because many of them were huddled around the fire or sharpening weapons.

"How did I…" Carl began to ask, but a kick to his face quickly interrupted his sentence. "Be quiet!" the woman hissed.

She then turned to address someone Carl couldn't see. "You brought this man when I asked for the boy. You are a fool. Bring me Omega or all of you will die."

"I brought him here as a present, to cement the beginning of our business relationship. This  _man_  is in charge of Hilltop now. One of your spears killed the former leader. And also, your Omega is living in his house." With those words, Alpha's eyes snapped to Carl's.

"But this isn't all just for you, I need something in return". Carl's blood ran cold when he recognized the voice of Gregory. Carl blinked his eye trying to focus, but the darkness shrouded Gregory.

"I am not interested in a business relationship" the woman who Carl figured was Alpha whispered. "I want only Omega, and I will be on my way. What you get in return is your life. And if you speak any louder, the walking ones will come for you, and you will lose that as well."

Gregory stepped forward slightly so that he could whisper, and the firelight finally lit up his face. Carl could also see the silhouettes of the two people who had dragged him away after he fainted.

_That lying piece of shit is trying to bargain with her using me. I'll cut his throat._

"Alpha, we both need something. You need that little runt back, and I need this kid dead. Now we can both get what we want. You stroll up to those gates, tell them if they don't return Omega you'll kill their leader, and of course they don't return Omega, and of course you kill him. My problem is solved, and in the eyes of my people, I'm blameless about his death. Then, I'll use the secret tunnel that I built to kindly return the brat, and you can be on your way. We're both happy." Gregory explained calmly.

_So that's how he thinks he'll get into power?_

Carl chuckled softly and both Gregory and Alpha turned to him. "You're pathetic" Carl said. "No way that's gonna work. You think no one will notice Omega just disappeared? You think you're getting out of this alive?" Carl said to Gregory. "Even if you kill me, if you go back in there my family will fucking kill you 10 times before you hit the ground. You're over Gregory".

Gregory smiled. "We'll see".

He turned back to Alpha. "Do we have a deal?"

Although Alpha's face was hidden behind a mask of walker skin, her body language dripped with disdain for Gregory.

"You are a coward for drugging this man, and a fool for searching for this camp. I have no respect for you and I'm tempted to kill you now." She paused and seemed thoughtful. "But if what you say will get Omega back, I will consider it. Send a messenger in the morning and I will give you my answer. But your messenger must find us. We don't stay in one camp long."

Gregory nodded and smiled. He then stuck out his hand to shake Alpha's but she coldly stared at it. Unfazed, he gave her a fake, used car salesman smile, turned, and walked away with Timothy and the other man trailing behind him.

Alpha immediately turned to another walker person. "Beta" she whispered, and nodded her head in the direction Gregory went. A woman much taller than Alpha, bowed quickly and moved off in the same direction as Gregory.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick paced around the kitchen waiting for Carl to come home. It was almost 30 minutes later. Rick's pacing put Enid on edge.

"Screw this, I'm going" she said, standing up from her chair.

"Enid…" Rick started.

"I'm going!" she said again.

Rick nodded, he knew he couldn't stop her. "Let's go."

The two of them left the house and headed straight for Gregory's. When they got there, Rick pounded on the door. One of Gregory's followers opened the door.

"Where's Carl?" Enid asked impatiently. "Carl? Um… I don't…"

"Where's Gregory?" Rick asked.

"He… he stepped out a few…"

Rick, not listening anymore, barged into the house. The people inside stared at him. "Where's my son?" he asked.

Yana, who had opened the door earlier, said "He left a little while ago Rick. He's not here."

"Where did he go?" Enid asked.

"I would assume home" Yana said, looking genuinely confused.

Rick and Enid exchanged a glance.

"Where's Gregory?" Rick asked again.

"He just left a little while ago" another man said.

"To go where?" Rick asked, tilting his head in annoyance that he had to keep asking questions.

"Didn't say, but I don't think he'd be too happy with you being all up in his business." The man threw out.

"We're leaving" Enid said to the gathering, trying to diffuse Rick who put his hand on his gun, "but if we don't find my husband we'll be back here. Tell Gregory that."

She turned and walked out the door, Rick reluctantly leaving with her.

"If he went home we would've passed him on the way here" Enid said.

"Ok. I'll go to the wall, see if anyone's seen him. You go to the big house. We'll meet back home after."

Enid and Rick went their separate ways.

20 minutes later they both arrived back at the house without Carl. Michonne was as close to a panic as she'd ever been. "Where did he go? He couldn't've left the gates, we're surrounded by walkers and someone would've seen him. And Gregory is missing too?"

"That son of a bitch" Rick growled. "He did something to Carl. You two stay here, keep the doors locked. I'm going back to Gregory's house, I'll be back."

Before Enid could protest, Rick said "you have that baby to worry about Enid. Sit tight… please."

She reluctantly nodded and Rick left, ready to get the information he needed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gregory and his crew smugly left Alpha's camp. He had followers everywhere, and one of them on Hilltop's defense team had given him an idea of where the Walker People could be setting up camp. He was skilled at using stolen medicine from the infirmary to use as poison, and he had done it before. He just couldn't believe that Carl had actually agreed to meet him and was stupid enough to drink the tea he'd offered.

After Carl was unconscious, Timothy and Maxwell had taken Carl to the basement of the big house, where Gregory had created a secret tunnel that led out of the walls long ago, in case he ever had to escape from Negan. He and the two men with him were the only ones who knew about it, the tunnel workers having "mysteriously" come down with an illness that killed them. They had brought Carl out there to see if Alpha would work with them. Gregory was confident she would, and if she didn't, well… at least Carl was gone.

They walked for a few miles until they reached the back yard of a small house, where the tunnel entrance led to. The hole was covered with a junk car and hidden behind wild shrubbery. Anyone who didn't know it was there would probably walk by. The three men cautiously checked their surroundings to make sure no one was watching. They then laid on their stomachs and pulled themselves underneath the junk car, lowering themselves into the hole that lay beneath.

When the last man had disappeared under the car, Beta smiled to herself from the tree she'd been hiding in.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Carl sat on the ground under a tree, he rubbed the rope binding his hands against the rough tree bark hoping he could fray the rope. To his dismay it seemed very steady. As discreetly as he could, he searched the dirt around himself for something sharp to cut the rope with. Alpha suddenly appeared behind him, watching him struggle with the bindings.

"So you are the Alpha of your town now. Hmmph… I don't understand why they would follow you." She said skeptically.

She slowly made her way to the front of Carl. "A young boy, barely growing a mustache. Why are you Alpha?" she asked.

"You don't wanna find out" Carl hissed, sitting up as straight as he could with his bindings.

Alpha's eyes bore into his through her skin mask. "You have been injured. A battle wound perhaps?" she asked, nodding at Carl's eye patch. He glared at her and it only made her more curious.

"No matter. Return Omega to me and I won't kill you or your people." She said.

"He's not going back to you. You abused him. You don't deserve him."

"You know nothing about him" Alpha responded. "He is being made strong. He will not be weak like the rest of you. Hiding behind walls, eating dinner at tables. He was born wild. He will stay wild. And he will return to his people" she said, crouching down in front of Carl.

Carl stared back, not saying anything.

Alpha took out a long, extremely sharp knife from her scabbard and brandished it in Carl's face. His eyes involuntarily followed the knife as it crossed his face, and then went back to her eyes.

"I want nothing from you or your people but Omega. The man that brought you here, he is a coward. I have met many cowardly men, and I recognize them immediately. I don't want to align myself with him, but I will to get what I want". She pressed the knife under Carl's neck, pressing against his throat. They stared at each other for a few seconds, when Alpha suddenly plunged the knife into Carl's shoulder.

Carl let out a surprised roar at the sudden pain, but he quickly composed himself, huffing to breathe through the agony. He willed his eyes to stare at her again.

_You won't break me. I won't do what you want. Fuck you._

She seemed slightly surprised that he didn't have more of a reaction to getting stabbed. She took her knife and slowly slid it across his cheek, drawing blood. He jerked his head away from her angrily, and she chuckled. She wiped her knife off on Carl's shirt and leaned in closer to his face. He noticed she smelled like she hadn't washed in months, maybe years. He was nauseated.

"If you do not return Omega, you will not survive" she said.

"If you and your people don't leave now,  _you_  won't survive" Carl said through his pain.

Alpha smiled. She sat in front of Carl and folded her legs under her like she was getting ready to tell a story. Carl couldn't shake the bizarreness of this moment. He still got the feeling that he was talking to a walker.

"I said that I have met many cowardly men, and I can recognize them immediately. I can see that you are not one of them. We are not around strange men often, we stay far from them. They bring only trouble and weakness…"

Carl's head was spinning.  _Does this mean all the walker people are women?_

Alpha seemed to read his mind. "The lowers are men who travel with us, they are not our equals. They stay because they need protection, they help us herd the walking ones… and they suit our needs."

Carl tried not to hide his surprise, but his eye must have given it away.

"You find this strange? That we keep the lowers to pleasure us?" Alpha asked "Is this not what is being done to women in most places nowadays? They are kept as trophies or possessions through intimidation or coercion, by weak men."

Carl was going to protest that what she was saying wasn't true, but he thought back to Negan and his many wives, forcing women to sleep with him in order to protect the ones they loved. Negan had even temporarily made Michonne his wife, and would have sealed the deal if he and Rick didn't show up when they did. But people like Negan, and even the Governor, they weren't the majority. They couldn't be.

"It's not like that in our town. We don't use anyone. Everyone contributes and is treated equally. We are allied with other towns," Carl added, trying to warn Alpha that they had backup, "that have the same philosophy. It isn't right to use anyone."

Alpha was thoughtful for a moment. "The old ways, of living in towns, in houses. Those ways are dead. The only way to survive is to be what we are. Animals. A pack. A tribe. The Alpha, and those that follow."

Carl tried to move himself to a better position as his stabbed shoulder was throbbing relentlessly. He grunted as a sharp pain went through his arm.

"You are surrounded, if you try anything you will be killed and we will release another group of the walking ones on your town" Alpha said, and before Carl could respond she went behind him and cut his arms free. He immediately pressed his hand against his bleeding shoulder.

"Thank you" he said as Alpha stood over him.

There was silence for a little, and then Carl asked "Why do you care about Omega so much? He told me he was  _the_  lower. I'm guessing that's the lowest ranking person here. So if he was so low, why do you care if he stays with us? Some of your people got killed, and you're using up your walkers trying to get him back. Why not just let him go?"

"He is my blood" Alpha admitted. "He is mine."

"Yours?" Carl asked, intrigued. "He's your son?"

Alpha's eyes bore into Carl's and for a moment he thought she might attack him again.

"He is not my son… In the beginning, I was with my sister. We survived together, for months, alone. We came across a group who welcomed us, fed us, we let our guard down like fools. When we trusted them, they raped us, a gang of them. They held us prisoner for weeks and had us whenever they wanted."

Alpha paused, and Carl could see tears welling up in her eyes. When she saw that he noticed, her eyes suddenly changed and he could see a harshness there.

"They thought we were weak. That we would give up, but we bided our time. We waited until they untied us again, and we slaughtered them all, with our bare hands. With our teeth and fingernails, and our skill and wit. We picked them off one by one and destroyed them. And we never trusted men again. We stole their weapons, and as we traveled, we liberated women from other camps. Women who were being raped and used by men, and they joined us. We taught them not to be weak, to be wild and savage. We used the walking ones as protection from men who would harm us. We found that when we looked and smelled like them they would think we were them. My sister was the one who made the first mask."

Carl was fascinated by the story, but as he listened his eyes scanned his surroundings, looking for a way to get out of this situation alive.

"My sister discovered she was pregnant with the child of one of our rapists. We would have killed it while it was inside of her, but we had no means to do so. She had been my Beta, my second in command, but with the pregnancy she had become weak. Unable to hunt. She became the first lower. She stayed back and served the strong. When it was time for her to give birth she was left on her own in the woods to deliver by herself. If she survived she was strong. If she did not, she was weak."

"You left your sister to have a baby out in the woods?" Carl asked in disbelief.

"She survived. As did the infant. She came back to us, and proved her standing as Beta. But the child was a liability. The crying attracted the walking ones. She would often have to find an abandoned house to sleep in away from the rest of us."

Carl could see emotion in Alpha's eyes, through her mask of skin. He could tell that this story was hard for her to tell, and he wondered why she was opening up to him, of all people.

"When the child was older, my sister became angry with the way I led the group. She believed I was too brutal in my beliefs, and she feared for her son's future with us. She wanted us to be like your town. She wanted us to live in houses and pretend that we aren't animals. The boy had made her weak. Soft. She challenged me."

"And you killed her… Omega's mother. Your sister." Carl finished.

"I am Alpha, I can be challenged at any time. If I don't win, I don't deserve my place."

"So you made your own nephew your slave and beat him, and now you want him back?" Carl spat, the pain from his wound making him angry.

"Yes. I was preparing him for this world, and what he must do. He is the lowest of the lowers. A child, with little contribution to our tribe. But one day… one day he won't be a child, and he can take his true place, he can do what his mother could not…"

Suddenly, Carl put everything together and he understood why Alpha wanted Omega back so much. She was preparing him to be leader of the Walker People. She wanted to make him strong enough so that he would one day challenge her and win. She wanted him to take her place.

Alpha could tell Carl understood what she meant. "He was born wild, he has never known the comforts of the old life. He is pure, and can lead the people in a new direction. Maybe a better direction than I could. As Alpha, I will keep and fight for my position as long as I can, but I would be honored if Omega one day  _takes_  it from me. He ran away after being harshly disciplined by one of the uppers, Epsilon, and I had Beta follow him. That was when you found him."

"Why are you telling  _me_  all this?" Carl asked her.

"I can tell you have Omega's best interest at heart, but let me be clear. I will do anything to get him back. I will kill every man, woman, and child inside of your town to find him. If you have  _their_  best interests in mind, you will return him."

And with that, Alpha stood and walked away, giving Carl time to think. As she made her way over to the fire, Beta suddenly appeared out of the woods. She bowed in front of Alpha until Alpha touched her head, telling her it was ok to speak.

"Alpha, I know where the entrance to the tunnel is. I know how to get into the town."


	7. Chapter 7

Rick left Carl's house on a war path. As he stormed over to Gregory's he didn't have a concrete plan of how he was going to find Carl, but he knew no one in that house was leaving until Carl was found. As he walked, his hand instinctively rested on his gun, and his entire body was tense with rage.

_How dare Gregory think he could try something like this? How dare he think he could do something to my son? I'll kill that son of a bitch. If Carl's hurt I will kill him._

When Rick was a few hundred feet from Gregory's house a movement caught his eye. He turned his head and was shocked to see Gregory making his way down the steps of the big house. Rick quickly shrank back into the shadows and watched as he nonchalantly strolled towards his home. Carl was nowhere in sight. Rick waited until Gregory got closer and he quickly revealed himself, cocking his gun and pointing it at Gregory's head. Gregory leaped back startled.

"Where the  _fuck_  is my son, Gregory?" Rick asked, moving closer to Gregory as he tried to discreetly step backwards. Gregory's eyes widened with fear and he seemed lost for words, not expecting to run into Rick. Gregory's eyes flickered back and forth, looking for someone he could signal for help.

Rick quickly strode forward and grabbed Gregory's shirt with his left hand to stop him from backing away. He then pressed his Colt to Gregory's head and stared into his eyes. "Talk" he commanded.

"I… I don't know. I haven't seen Carl since the funeral…" Gregory started, and Rick smashed his gun into the side of Gregory's head. Rick paused and stared into Gregory's eyes again. "We can do this one of two ways. Way #1, you can tell me where Carl is and possibly live, or way #2, you can keep lying and I'll have to get the truth out of you some other way, and then you'll definitely die."

Gregory was shaking. "I… I don't know… I haven't seen him…" he began.

"Way #2 it is" Rick said, dragging Gregory off towards Carl's house.

"Please Rick" Gregory begged, "this isn't you, you're not a man that hurts innocent people. I… ok… I  _have_  seen Carl, he just stopped by my house for a few minutes but then he left! I don't know where he went after that."

Rick, already done with Gregory's lies, knocked on the front door of the trailer. While they waited for one of the women to get the door he whispered in Gregory's ear "My children are sleeping. If you wake them, you'll regret it."

Gregory audibly swallowed and within a few seconds Michonne unlocked the door with her katana in hand. She seemed slightly startled to see Gregory and Rick together, but it only took a glance at Rick to realize what was going on. She nodded and moved aside, letting the two of them in, and Rick took Gregory straight to the bedroom so the kids wouldn't be woken up.

Enid, who was sitting in the kitchen, watched the two men walk by and then she quickly took a kitchen chair and brought it into the bedroom, immediately realizing what was about to happen.

Rick pushed Gregory down onto the kitchen chair that Enid had brought, and when Gregory opened his mouth to protest, Rick snapped "shut up".

"Where is my husband?" Enid demanded, getting in Gregory's face. "I already know he went to your house for some bullshit meeting. What did you do to him?!" she screamed.

"Yes… ok, yes… he did come to my house, my followers can back me up on that. And we talked, I told him it would be in both of our interests to work together to run this…" Gregory's sentence was cut off by a punch from Rick.

"She asked what you did to him." Rick growled.

Michonne quietly let herself into the room and silently closed the door behind her. She stood by the door katana in hand, staring at the scene, as her katana glinted in the light.

"I… I… I didn't do anything to him" Gregory stuttered. "He left after the meeting and I didn't see him since!"

Enid glared at Gregory, and Rick moved dangerously close to him. "We know that you went somewhere after Carl left your house. Where were you?"

"I went to the big house, where you saw me coming from just now. I was there the whole time. I was looking for the blue prints of Hilltop. Carl and I had discussed possibly creating more look out towers to stop attacks like this from happening again." Gregory lied.

"You weren't at the big house" Enid said, her voice getting dangerously soft. "I checked there, no one had seen you or Carl. I personally checked all the meeting rooms, including the room with the blue prints."

Gregory's eyes now nervously flashed from Enid to Rick. Rick punched Gregory in the face, causing spit to fly everywhere. Gregory grabbed his face in pain and let out a wail. Rick quickly grabbed Gregory by the throat and squeezed.

"Shut the fuck up. My children are sleeping. I told you you'll regret it if you wake them up."

Gregory looked terrified as he quickly nodded his head.

_Not terrified enough to tell the truth_  Rick thought as he let go of Gregory's neck.

"No one is believing your lies" Rick said in a soft, calm, whisper. "This is your chance to tell the truth. What did you do with Carl?"

Gregory, still thinking he had a chance to lie his way out of this said "Ok… I saw two men drag him off… I couldn't see who they were…"

Suddenly, Michonne moved from her spot by the door, lifted her katana, and with the skill of a woman who's been using a weapon for years, she quickly severed one of Gregory's fingers from his hand.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" he screamed in agony, and Rick wrapped his hands around Gregory's neck again to silence him.

"My children…" Rick whispered.

Gregory finally realized he wouldn't make it out of this room with all his limbs if he didn't talk now. Rick let go of Gregory's neck again and Gregory breathed heavily until he caught his breath.

"Ok… ok… this is what happened. Carl came to my house like I said, and we talked. He left, but I had two men follow him. We took him out the gates… to the Walker People camp."

"What?" Enid gasped.

Rick looked like he was going to strangle Gregory all the way this time.

Michonne narrowed her eyes, she could tell that wasn't the whole story. "Carl could take on two men. There's something you're not telling. And how the hell did you get him out of the gates?"

Gregory clutched his bleeding hand and looked at Rick with fear. "He was drugged so he wouldn't put up a fight."

While Gregory was busy staring at Rick, Enid punched Gregory in the face. "You bastard! You drugged my husband?" she screamed. She continued to punch Gregory until Michonne gently moved her away and she plopped down onto the bed, tears pouring down her face.

Rick was unnervingly calm as he moved his face closer to Gregory's so that they were eye to eye.

"How did you get him out of the gates?" Rick asked.

"There's a tunnel underneath the big house. It leads out of here." Gregory moaned.

Rick glanced at Michonne and he spoke to her using just his eyes.

_I'll go get our son. You hold things down here._

Michonne nodded slightly, and Rick turned back to Gregory, grabbing the nub where his finger used to be. Gregory cried out and Rick shoved a hand over his mouth.

"You're gonna take us to the Walker People camp, and you're gonna get my son back. And you'd better  _pray_  Carl doesn't have a scratch on him, or that finger will be the least of your problems". Rick took his finger and dug it into Gregory's wound, making him whimper.

"Now get the fuck up and take me to that camp. And if you try to signal anyone, or warn anyone about where we're going…" Rick dug his finger into Gregory's wound further, causing him to cover his own mouth with his other hand to prevent himself from screaming out loud.

Gregory nodded vigorously. Enid leaped off the bed and picked up a satchel. She quickly started filling it with supplies they may need. Rick looked at her curiously.

"You're not going Enid" he said.

"Yes. I am." She said, continuing to pack her bag.

"No. You're not putting that baby in danger."

"What are you gonna do?" she asked, staring Rick down. "Look, unless you knock me out, I'm going. You can't stop me, so don't even try. I'm the only one medically trained, and if he's injured he needs me.  _I'm going_." She emphasized again.

Rick glanced at Michonne to see what she thought. Michonne looked at Enid and then back to Rick, raising her eyebrow. She knew that if she were Enid she'd say the same thing. The only thing stopping  _her_  from going was the children sleeping in the living room, and the fact that she knew at this point in her pregnancy she couldn't run fast enough to keep up. She gave Rick a slight nod that it was ok and he sighed.

"Fine. But you're gonna hide out until we get Carl back safely. You don't let them see you. Got it?" Rick warned.

Enid nodded her head. Rick turned back to Gregory. "Who on the Hilltop defense team is  _not_  one of your followers?" Rick asked.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick, Enid, and nine other members of the defense team suited up to follow Gregory to the Walker People's camp. Gregory named members of the defense team who he claimed weren't his followers, but Rick and Enid went through each name and tried to assess if they'd seen any of the named people at his house. It seemed to check out that he was telling the truth.  _Finally_. Rick quickly filled the defense team members in on what was going on, as Enid stitched Gregory's bleeding stump closed in the living room.

The children had been woken up by the commotion of the defense team arriving, and they had been put back to bed in Carl and Enid's room, even though Michonne knew they'd never go back to sleep now.

Michonne nervously paced as she listened to the briefing happening in the living room. After Rick briefed the team members, he met with her in the kitchen, and silently wrapped his arms around her, not speaking a word. She buried her face in his neck and rested there for a few moments, breathing him in. She then kissed his neck and then his lips. "Bring him back" she said. "I will" Rick replied, kissing her, and then he leaned down and kissed her belly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Before Rick left, he informed trustworthy members of Hilltop's defense team to keep an eye on Gregory's followers. The team then followed Gregory into the basement of the big house, where he showed them the entryway to the underground tunnel, hidden behind a false wall. The tunnel was small, but allowed the team to walk through it one by one if they crouched down so that they didn't hit their heads on the low ceiling. They walked for 15 minutes in the small claustrophobic space until Gregory said "the exit is up ahead".

They looked up to see a hole in the ceiling, with a small ladder leading upwards. One by one they climbed upwards through the opening, squeezing from underneath the parked car on top of the hole. Gregory lead them through the forest for twenty more minutes, Rick's gun trained on the back of his head the entire time. Suddenly, Gregory stopped walking.

"Their camp was just up ahead" he said, clutching his hand. "Like I told you during the briefing, I only saw about 25 of them, but there could be more".

Rick looked over at Enid and she nodded her head, unholstering her gun and taking cover behind some bushes.

Rick pressed his gun to Gregory's back and commanded "move".

Gregory started moving through the woods again, approaching the camp. He walked for a minute or so and then stopped suddenly causing Rick to bump into him.

"Why'd you stop?" Rick hissed angrily.

Gregory looked around confused. "This is where the camp was" he said, "They're gone".

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Carl sat leaning against the tree, deep in thought. It was against everything he believed in to send Omega back to these people after what he'd been through, but if Carl didn't give him up people would die.

_Is this kid worth more deaths? More people getting hurt? Putting my dad and Michonne and Enid and my sisters in danger? Is he worth putting my baby in danger?_

Carl closed his eyes briefly as he thought. He already considered Omega part of the family and he'd only known the little boy for two days. The boy had opened up, started speaking, started living like a person again instead of an animal. He couldn't give him back.

Carl opened his eyes and searched his surroundings. He could see Alpha off by the fire, talking to another person. He looked around and didn't see anyone watching him. Sucking in a breath, he quickly pulled himself to his knees, ignoring the sharp pain in his shoulder from where he'd been stabbed.

Suddenly a voice behind him whispered "Sit".

Carl whipped his head around to see another Walker Person who was standing behind him in his blind spot. He had missed her due to his missing eye. Carl slowly lowered himself back down. She kneeled in front of him, smelling as bad as a real walker. Although he couldn't see her face through the mask she wore, he could tell she was young, probably his age. She grabbed his wrists and quickly tied them tightly with rope.

Carl, at a loss for what to do to get out of this situation, tried talking.

"My name's Carl, what's yours?" he asked.

The girl glared at him and rolled her eyes. "You will die soon".

Carl chuckled, surprising the girl who stopped to stare at him. He leaned his head back against the tree and sighed. "That would suck" he said, shaking his head. "My wife's pregnant with my first baby, and I'm here probably about to die, and I'm gonna leave her all alone… I told her that she'd never be alone again, and now look. I was trying to do the right thing, y'know? Meeting with that man, I was trying to do what was best for my people. I never should've let my guard down around Gregory" Carl said, talking more to himself than the girl that stood in front of him. "This whole thing… it just sucks…"

The girl stared at Carl curiously for a few seconds. "Why do you keep Omega? Return him and this will end for you and your people, as well as for us."

"Omega is happy where he is. Are  _you_  really happy here?" Carl asked, staring into the girl's eyes. She stared back, but their gaze was broken by Alpha who began walking back over. The girl quickly scurried out of Alpha's way.

"Did you make your choice?" Alpha asked Carl.

"Yes, it's the same as it was 15 minutes ago" he said.

"Very well" Alpha said, "Sigma, blindfold him. We're moving."

"Yes Alpha" the girl said. As Alpha stalked away, the girl glanced at Carl and whispered "no" before tying a blindfold around his face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"When we get inside we will need to bring the walking ones with us. They will protect us and cause a distraction." Alpha said. "We will go collect another herd. They will go ahead of us and clear the way. Once inside, we kill the towns people and find Omega."

Beta nodded her head. "Yes Alpha…" she paused for a moment as if considering if she could continue speaking. "Alpha, may I ask a question?"

Alpha turned and looked at Beta, her second in command. "Speak" she said.

"Alpha, I am not questioning your will. But I'd like to know  _why_  you are putting so much of our resources and warriors in danger for this boy. You have taught us that the strong survive and the weak die. He is weak. He ran away. He doesn't want to return. Perhaps we should let him live with the weak and move on."

Alpha stared into the eyes of Beta who quickly looked down. Alpha knew Beta wasn't trying to go against her, she just didn't understand why Alpha cared about the boy so much. Alpha had never told any of the others her relationship to Omega. She hadn't even told Omega. The members of the group that had been there long enough had just known that he was the son of the former Beta who had challenged Alpha and failed.

"Yes, he is weak" Alpha agreed, "but I have an interest in keeping him here. One I will not share."

Beta knew when the conversation is over. "Yes Alpha" she responded.

"Tell the others we're leaving now."

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Rick stared Gregory down. "What the fuck do you mean they're gone?"

Gregory flinched at the venom in Rick's voice.

"The leader told me they don't stay in one camp long. They must've left. She said if I wanted to contact her I'd have to find her."

Rick slammed Gregory up against a tree by his neck, his eyes boring into Gregory's terrified eyes. Rick pulled his gun and brought it to Gregory's temple.

"Rick" a member of the defense team said. "Rick, we still need him. Killing him won't get your son back."

Another team member studied the ground nearby. "They couldn't have left more than a half hour ago. The footprints seem fresh and there's still smoke coming from the remains of the fire. We can still find them."

"I… I can help you Rick. I can help you find him." Gregory stuttered. "Please, I can talk to her. Convince her to let him go."

Rick let go of Gregory's neck. "Find them" he growled.

Rick whistled so Enid knew it was safe to come out of hiding. In a few seconds she was there with the rest of the group.

"He's not here?" Enid asked, panic rising in her voice.

"Enid you should go back" Rick said. "We have to track them down, go back and tell Michonne and the rest of the team what's going on."

"No!" Enid said stubbornly. "I'm pregnant, not handicapped. I am going. Don't ask me to go back again." She then kneeled down and looked at the directions of the tracks. "They went this way" she called, and then she made her way off in that direction, the rest of the team following behind her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Carl was blindfolded and forced to his feet by Sigma as the Walker People began to move from their camp. "Stay still" she whispered to him. He suddenly felt something foul smelling and sticky being poured over his body.

"Ugh! What… what is that?" he asked.

"It is the blood of the walking ones. So they don't eat you. Be quiet" she hissed.

Carl felt himself being lead through the woods. They walked for quite a while when he heard the sounds of walkers in the distance, but this was unlike anything he'd heard before. It sounded like a massive herd, growls, moans, and snarls creating a loud chorus. The stench of rotting bodies was overpowering. He thought he was used to the smell of walkers after living in this world for so long, but Carl felt nauseous and it took everything to hold in the vomit.

Carl could hear Alpha whispering directions not far away from him.

"Split the herd, we only need half. The lowers will tend the other half while we're gone."

_What are they going to do with this herd? I have to get away, maybe if we're surrounded by walkers it'll be easier for me to escape._

Carl tried pulling on the ropes around his hands again, but they were tied well. Suddenly he was forced to start walking again by Sigma, and he could hear walkers on every side of him. They were bumping into him, moving past him. He realized he was now inside of the herd, and the herd was probably on its way to the Hilltop.

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Rick, Enid, and the rest of the team followed the Walker People's trail as much as they could. They walked for a while, unsure of if they were going in the right direction. Rick knew this was getting more and more dangerous. It was dark and they had no idea where the Walker People were. As far as anyone knew they could be surrounded right now. As much as Rick hated to say it, they had to go back to Hilltop and wait until it was light enough outside to resume the search.

Just when he was going to open his mouth to say what he was thinking, the forest opened up into a clearing. "Look!" Enid whispered, pointing downward. Using the moonlight, Rick looked where she was pointing and was horrified to see footprints everywhere.

_Either the Walker People have huge numbers, or… or this was a herd. A huge herd of walkers._

The rank smell lingering in the air confirmed Rick's second idea. "Rick" a member of the team called, "All the footprints are going back that way."

Rick felt like his heart stopped. The footprints were heading back to the Hilltop.


	8. Chapter 8

Alpha led her warriors towards the town that was holding her nephew. On the outside she was confident, walking with her head held high, her back straight and her chest out. She had learned long ago how a leader should walk and look. A leader should show no fear, no weakness. She had perfected how to put on a mask of confidence. But on the inside she wasn't so sure.

She knew her people were grumbling about coming back to the town to get Omega. She also knew it was her fault. She had built her world on only the strong mattering, she had indoctrinated her people to believe that the weak were something to be ignored and left to die. How could she explain why she kept trying to bring this little boy back? Why she cared?  _She_  knew the reason though. Deep down inside she loved her nephew. Even though she was harsh with him, and she didn't protect him the way an aunt should have, she did care about him.

She glanced over at the man who was the leader of the town they were about to attack. He was nothing but a boy himself, but she could tell he cared for Omega as well. In her heart she knew that living in a town was a better existence for a young boy like Omega. She knew he wouldn't have to fight for food and sleep out in the open like her people did. He could sleep knowing that he was completely protected. He wouldn't have to wear a mask to be safe. She knew this, but she couldn't bring herself to let him go. He was all she had left of her sister. All she had left of her real family.

_You are Alpha, you cannot second guess your decisions. You cannot change your mind now, it'll make you look weak. You will be victorious. You will get Omega back._

Beta lead the group and walkers towards the backyard where there was an opening to the tunnel. Five warriors pushed the junk car away from the entrance to the tunnel and climbed down.

"Alpha!" one whispered from inside, loud enough to be heard but soft enough to not draw attention from the walkers, "If we herd the walking ones to the edge of the hole they will fall down and continue through the tunnel."

Alpha nodded. She made a hand signal and the Walker People on the outsides of the herd extended their hands outwards to make a gate, pushing the walkers closer to the tunnel opening. The walkers, instinctively following each other, began to move forward, falling into the tunnel.

Alpha turned to look at Carl and was slightly startled when she didn't see him. She turned around, searching the herd of walkers for the blindfolded boy who was covered in blood and being guarded by Sigma.

Alpha immediately knew what had happened. Sigma had betrayed her. That girl would die with the rest of the townspeople.

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"Would your people take me in?" Carl heard a voice whisper in his ear.

Slightly startled, he turned his head towards it. "Yes" he whispered, "yes, just like they did Omega. If you help me I can vouch for you."

There was silence. Carl's heart began to beat faster. This could be his way out of here. His way home.

"How do I know I can trust you?" the voice asked, and he realized it was the girl who had blindfolded him.

"You don't" he answered honestly "but I swear, if you help me I will find a safe place for you."

Carl didn't hear anything but walkers moaning for a few seconds, and he wondered if he should've said something else, but then he felt a hand wrap around his arm, pulling him.

"Come" she whispered, "if we are caught we'll both be killed."

Carl allowed himself to be led away by the girl, his blindfold making it difficult to follow her. He bumped into her multiple times.

"Slow down" she whispered, "you're walking too fast. You must look like the walking ones."

"Sorry, I can't see" he whispered back.

She quickly ripped the blindfold off his face. They were surrounded by walkers who were being herded forwards towards a back yard.

"Duck down, my people are on the ends of the herd, steering it."

Carl ducked down so that no one could see his head moving in the opposite direction of the rest of the walkers. As they approached the ends of the herd they could see some of the walker people with their arms out, pushing the herd forward.

The girl whispered in Carl's ear. "I distract. You run!". He nodded and she confidently strolled over to two of the Walker People.

He couldn't hear the conversation over the moans and growls of the walkers, but the two Walker People nodded and they suddenly started to change the direction they were pushing the herd in. While they were distracted, Carl sprinted into the forest, desperately trying to reach the cover of the tree line. He ran, desperately trying to get as far away from the herd as possible. He considered if he should actually wait for the girl who had helped him escape or if he should keep running, but he knew he couldn't just leave her.

After running to where he considered a safe distance he stopped and waited for the girl. A few minutes later he heard a single person running through the woods. "Here!" he whispered.

Hearing his voice, the girl jogged over to him.

"We must go! Alpha will know we're gone by now."

"They're heading towards my town. I think they're gonna use the tunnel Gregory took me through… We have to get to the front gates and warn them."

"How? We won't get there first."

"We have to try."

Carl took the lead as he sprinted off towards the Hilltop.

"What's your name?" he panted as he ran.

"Alpha named me Sigma, but my real name is Lydia"

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Michonne sat on the couch in Carl's living room, staring at the door. She had no idea how long the team had been gone, or when to expect them back, but she definitely wasn't sleeping tonight. Neither were the kids, who she didn't even bother trying to put back to bed. After the Hilltop defense team left with Rick, Enid, and Gregory, Michonne called the children into the living room. She had Judy collect all the pillows and blankets and they all built a pillow fort which was now occupying most of the small living room. It was a welcome distraction for the kids and for her, and she laughed uncontrollably as Judy, Joy and Omega chased each other around the fort.

"Mommy you come in the fort too!" Joy called to her.

Michonne chuckled. "I can't baby, I'm too big. Mommy's belly will knock it down!"

Joy and Judy both giggled at that while Omega just looked on with a smile.

"Mommy can we stay up all night? Pleaseeeeee?" Judy asked.

"You can stay up for now honey. We'll have to see what time Carl and Enid and daddy come back."

As she spoke those words Michonne's heart sank. She was truly worried, and a dark part of her was preparing for what to do if they  _didn't_  come back soon. She unconsciously rubbed her belly as she got lost in her thoughts. Suddenly, she felt the baby kick.

"Hey little one" she said to her belly "You awake too?"

"He's awake?!" Judy squealed excitedly. "Can I feel him?"

Michonne laughed at Judy's assumption it was a boy. She had been calling the baby  _him_  for the past 8 months, even though Michonne had reminded her many times it might be a girl.

"Come quick" she said to Judy. Judy rolled out of the pillow fort and practically leaped on to Michonne's lap. Michonne took one of Judy's hands and moved it to the spot that she had felt the baby kick before, but now it was still.

"I don't feel him" Judy said, disappointed.

"Maybe if you talk to… him" Michonne said, giving in to Judy's preference for a brother.

"Ok" Judy said a little shyly. "Hi baby! This is your big sister Judy. We need you to move around a little bit so we can feel you. Ok? Just a little bit."

Joy, always Judy's little shadow, quickly made her way over to join in the conversation. "And this is your big sister Joyjoy, and I want to feel you move too!"

Michonne laughed at both of her daughter's antics, temporarily forgetting her worried state. Both girls placed their hands on Michonne's stomach waiting for a response. Suddenly the baby began to turn, making both girls squeal in delight and Michonne feel slightly queasy as it felt like the baby was rearranging her internal organs.

"Ugh… well… you got what you asked for Judy" Michonne moaned.

"Omega, you wanna feel my brother?" Judy asked. Judy then turned to look at Michonne, asking her if it was ok. Michonne smiled and nodded. Omega got up and approached Michonne shyly. Michonne took his hand and moved it to her belly where the baby was still doing what seemed like backflips.

Omega gave a big smile. "It's moving" he whispered.

" _He's_  moving" Judy corrected.

"Mommy can I name him?" Joy asked.

"Hold on, why are the two of you  _so_  sure it's a boy?" Michonne asked, amused.

"Cuz we have too many princesses. We have to have enough princes." Joy explained in three year old logic.

"And Joy doesn't want to share her room" Judy cut in.

"Well how do you know  _you_  won't end up sharing  _your_  room with the baby?" Michonne asked Judy teasingly.

"Cuz I'm the  _biggest_  sister" Judy said as if the question was ridiculous.

Michonne smiled at her precocious daughters, but as her eyes wandered to the clock her smile slowly faded.

Omega, who was watching the whole conversation and especially Michonne's face, whispered "they'll be back soon", stunning her. She turned to look at this small boy who had obviously seen much more than a child should, and had been through things that a child never should go through. She grasped his small, skinny hand and squeezed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick sprinted back towards Hilltop with Enid and the rest of the defense team right behind him. He couldn't believe that huge herd of walkers was headed in Hilltop's direction. He was pretty sure the walkers couldn't get through the gates, but who knew what the Walker People had up their sleeves. The last time they attacked, thirteen people died. And now they had Carl, thanks to Gregory.

Rick shot a look at Gregory who was lagging behind. Two guards had guns aimed at him at all times, but he was falling behind the group. Rick, suppressing the urge to shoot him right then and there growled "hurry up!".

"Rick!" Enid called, "they're not heading to the gates, they're going back towards where the tunnel is… they know where it is…"

Rick spun around towards Gregory and Gregory dropped to the ground, terrified. "Please Rick… I didn't tell them where it was, I swear! I don't know how they could know where it is! Maybe Carl…" but Gregory quickly ended his sentence, realizing he was going too far.

Rick punched Gregory in the face so hard he fell backwards, stunned. "Carl wouldn't tell them shit! He's not a coward like you."

Gregory, knowing what was best for him shut his mouth.

"We need to get back NOW!" Enid yelled. "No one is gonna expect walkers to be coming out of that tunnel. And Carl is with them."

The team continued running towards the tunnel, and the guards who were watching Gregory were practically dragging him forward. As Enid ran she could feel her mental and physical exhaustion. She would never admit it to anyone but she knew this outing was pushing her pregnant body to its extremes. She could feel a cramp in her side, and her feet were killing her, but she continued to run.

_Carl is with them. Carl is in danger. You have to get to Carl._

They finally reached the tunnel entrance and everyone froze. It was obvious that a large herd had gone through the area. The grass was trampled, and the car that had been blocking the entrance had been rolled away.

Rick ran to the entrance of the tunnel and could hear the faint sound of walkers. They were in. They had made it inside.

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Michonne laid back on the couch as Judy and Joy attempted to braid her long waist length locs. They were really making large knots in her hair, but she didn't mind. Omega was staring out the window, seemingly lost in his thoughts. Michonne couldn't help but think how aged the little five year old seemed.

She sighed and closed her eyes trying to calm her frayed nerves. Joy, sensing her mother's mood took one of her locs and tickled the side of her face causing Michonne to smile. Michonne was about to say something when Omega took in a sharp breath.

Michonne's eyes snapped open.

"The walking ones!" Omega exclaimed, leaping away from the window.

Michonne shot up from the couch so fast she startled Judy and Joy. She ran over to the window and her mouth dropped open as she watched dozens of walkers wandering down the streets of the Hilltop.

"Shit!" she exclaimed before she remembered who was in the room with her. "Sorry" she mumbled. "Judy turn off the lights! And then all of you get into Enid's room" Michonne ordered.

"But mommy…" Judy began. "Now!" Michonne snapped, the tone of her voice scaring Judy enough that she knew this was serious.

Judy went to turn off all the lights as Michonne grabbed her katana. Omega stood in front of Michonne. "It's Alpha!" he said "She's here. She's come to get me." Tears started to spring from Omega's eyes. "I don't want to go back. Please don't let her take me."

Michonne kneeled in front of the shaking boy. "She won't take you. I won't let her. I promise." Omega nodded, believing Michonne. Michonne ushered the children into the room. "Judy, you lock the door and all three of you get under the bed. Don't open the door unless I tell you to." Judy nodded. Michonne looked at Judy and Omega. "You two are the oldest. Protect Joy, ok?" Michonne could see Omega's chest stick out as she included him in protecting Joy. She knew this boy had lived with rough people and probably had to protect himself before. She pulled out a knife and handed it to Omega. He looked into Michonne's eyes and nodded.

She quickly shut the door and she could hear Judy lock it behind her. Michonne took a deep breath. The Walker People were here looking for Omega. If they wanted him they'd have to get through her first.

 

_**Author's Note: Thank you Jades, Sam, and Tay_Reads2797 for your comments. The feedback is greatly appreciated. Its about to get crazy in the next few chapters.** _


	9. Chapter 9

Carl and Lydia raced towards the walls of the Hilltop. Carl's lungs felt like they were about to explode, and the stab wound in his shoulder was throbbing with every movement. Lydia seemed to be accustomed to running for long distances and she soon was in the lead with Carl struggling to catch up.

"Do you need a break?" Lydia yelled from over her shoulder.

"No… can't…" Carl huffed, although inside, his body was screaming for rest.

_You can rest when you know Enid and your family is safe._

"You said your wife was pregnant. She is weak. Alpha will kill her, or use her for her benefit" Lydia said nonchalantly.

Carl turned to stare at Lydia as he ran, almost tripping over a fallen branch.

"My wife… is not… weak. And Alpha… won't…  _touch_  her." Carl growled, wondering what this girl had to have gone through to be so cold.

Lydia noticed the fierceness in Carl's voice and turned around to glance at him. "I didn't mean to upset you. It's just a fact. While she's pregnant she can't contribute to the community. That makes her weak."

"You're wrong… my wife contributes… to the… community… every day." Carl said, using his remaining stores of energy to defend Enid. "She saves lives… she's not weak… don't say it again…"

Lydia didn't speak again as the two of them sprinted to Hilltop's gates. Carl was relieved when he could see the high wooden walls in the distance.

"When we get closer… you have to… put… your hands up… so they won't shoot" Carl said. He then glanced over at Lydia. "And you should… take your mask off".

Lydia glanced over at Carl. "I never take it off" she said quietly, her hand moving unconsciously towards her face.

"You have to" Carl said, "If you want to… live with us… you have to".

Lydia sighed and slowed down her running, but Carl didn't stop. He continued to run towards the gates and he knew he was close enough now to be spotted. There were dozens of left over walkers from the first attack circling the gates, but Carl ignored them, trying to get the attention of the people on watch. He was still covered in the blood Lydia had poured on him so that he could be in the walker herd.

"Hey!" he screamed "Open the gates! Open them now!"

Carl waited for someone to yell down at him, or for him to see figures moving on the lookout posts, but Carl couldn't see any movement, and no one responded. Carl's stomach dropped in panic.

_Where are the guards on duty? They'd never leave their posts. What's going…_

And suddenly through his panic, Carl could hear the growls on the other side of the fence. On the inside of Hilltop. The walkers.

"No!" Carl screamed in a panic, running to the gate and banging on it. "Open the gates! It's Carl! Open the gates!"

His yelling attracted the attention of the walkers on the outside and a few of them stumbled towards him. He was too busy trying to get in the gates to care. A walker stumbled up behind him, reaching out its arms to grab his shoulders. As its head lowered to bite him, Lydia shoved a knife through it, and the walker collapsed behind Carl.

Carl spun around and was startled to see Lydia, unmasked, standing behind him. Her blond hair was shoulder length and dirty, and she had big blue eyes that took up most of her small face. She had a funny look as if she was embarrassed, and she quickly rubbed her face, almost checking to see if it was still there.

"Thank you" Carl murmured, but his eyes were wide in panic and his mind was elsewhere. "They're not answering. There are walkers inside. I need to… we have to get inside"

Lydia tilted her head back so she could see the top of the tall gates made out of huge wooden logs. As she looked she nodded her head slightly as if she were having a conversation in her own head. Carl stared at her until she looked at him again.

"I can climb this" she said. She quickly pulled out two sharp objects. They looked like knives but they had a long metal hilt that looked handmade.

"What is that?" Carl asked.

"We use these to climb" Lydia said, inspecting the wood on one of the wooden logs. "When we're hunting we get in the trees to get an advantage on our prey"

She jumped up and quickly jabbed the knife into one of the logs, and while still hanging from the first knife she jabbed the second knife in even higher. Soon, both of her feet were completely off the ground. Carl watched in amazement as Lydia using mostly her upper arm strength and occasionally her feet or knees to hold herself steady, made her way up Hilltop's wall.

As Carl watched Lydia climb her way to the top of the wall he called up "Be careful. When you get over, you have to pull the ropes by the gates to open them." She didn't respond but he knew she heard him. Finally, she pulled herself up to the top of the gates and threw her legs over so that she was perched on the top. He saw her pause for a moment and then look back down at him.

"What?" Carl asked, terrified.

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Rick stared down into the tunnel entrance, listening to the moans of the straggling walkers at the back of the herd. His mind immediately went to Michonne who was in the house with the children.

_She'll be ok, she can handle herself. You have to find Carl and protect Enid. That's your priority right now._

"We have to go down there. There's walkers, get ready to fight. Enid, you stay in the middle of us. There may be Walker People down there too. If it moves, kill it."

Rick quickly lowered himself down the ladder leading into the tunnel. He pulled his gun and waited for Enid and the rest of the team to make their way down behind him. He quickly grabbed Gregory and pushed him to the front.

"You go first" Rick said.

Gregory looked at Rick, terrified. "I don't have a weapon!" he whined.

"Then you should watch where you're going" Rick whispered quietly to him.

Rick quickly looked back to make sure Enid was ok, and then he followed Gregory through the small tunnel. The air smelled rank with death and a walker could be heard up ahead. Gregory was moving extremely slowly and Rick got impatient, pushing Gregory out of his way and taking the lead. A walker who had been trampled lay half flattened on the floor. Rick stabbed it quickly and picked up the pace, desperate to get back into the Hilltop. People lived in the rooms of the big house and they were all in danger.

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Alpha followed the walking ones through the tunnel. Their moans echoed off the walls creating a roar. Two of her people were closer to the front of the herd so that they could open any doors or obstacles that the herd came up against. After a long walk she could see light up ahead, they had reached the inside of the town. Alpha walked into a large room and saw that the herd was making its way out into a hallway. She prepared herself for an attack, but it seemed like the area was empty. They were in some sort of basement and the herd was filling up the room quickly. She knew that if quarters got too close the herd might notice that there were living ones amongst them.

She held her hand up and pointed towards a door that was closed. Immediately, Beta and Gamma made their way over to the unlocked door and slowly opened it. They both froze and waved for Alpha to come over. She snuck a look through the door and she saw three men talking to each other while sitting on benches in a plushly decorated hallway. There were rugs on the floor and ornate furniture and paintings. Alpha rolled her eyes.  _These people live like they aren't surrounded by the dead. It's time to remind them._

She turned and signaled to her people who were mixed into the herd. They immediately began pushing the herd towards the door. Alpha and Beta swung the door open, startling the men in the hallway, and the walkers poured out of the door. The men yelled and held up their guns, firing on the walkers, but they were quickly overrun, and while the first few walkers fed on the still screaming men the others stepped past them, filling the house. Alpha could hear doors opening and footsteps coming towards them. She pressed herself against the wall, hiding in a corner where they couldn't see her. As they ran past her she took her club and slammed it into the nearest man's head, knocking him out and offering another meal to the walkers.

Impatient to find Omega, Alpha pushed forward and up the basement stairs with her people and some of the walkers behind her. She made it out of the basement and onto the first floor of the house. She entered the large lobby of the house which contained more ornate furniture and decorations. There were few people around, probably because it was such a late hour.

Alpha whispered to her people. "Check all the rooms for Omega. If the people refuse to talk or cooperate, kill them". The women nodded and snuck upstairs to do Alpha's bidding. Alpha also walked up the stairs, holding out her club as she slowly opened an unlocked door. It was a bedroom, and the occupant jumped out of bed startled by her.

"What? Who are…" the man started to say before Alpha hit him with her club, stunning him and knocking him to the ground, and used her knees to pin his arms to the floor.

"Where is Omega?" she asked, sticking her face into his.

The man's eyes were wide open, seemingly in shock from his unprovoked attack.

"Omega… what? Who the hell is that? Is that the kid Gregory was bitching about? Who the fuck are y…"

Alpha used her club to press down on the man's neck and he began to struggle as his breathing was compromised.

"You don't ask questions" she whispered. "Where is Omega? Tell me and maybe you'll live."

She released the club from the man's throat and he gasped in a breath. "I… I'm not sure. Gregory said he was living with the Grimes', but I don't know if he's still there. Please don't kill me." The man said quickly.

Alpha stopped leaning on his arms and pulled him up from his sitting position. "Show me where they live" she demanded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the man led Alpha to the Grimes' household, she recruited several Walker People to surround him as they went through the herd, protecting him from the walkers. Her people then began forcing the herd out of the big house and into the town. As the walkers spread out around the town they drew the attention of the Hilltop defense team who was manning the walls.

"Walkers!" someone screamed, and suddenly the town woke up. Lights turned on in the homes and gunshots rang out. A bullet whizzed past Alpha's head and she ducked down behind some bushes, dragging the man with her. The walkers spread out through the streets, attacking anyone in their path.

"Which house is it?" she demanded. The man pointed at one of the trailers where the lights were turned off. Alpha slammed her club through the man's head and then ran towards the trailer, Beta and Gamma close behind her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne knew Alpha was coming for her and her family, and she wracked her brain to think of how she could get the upper hand. She was at a disadvantage being pregnant, but she figured she could make the house as hard to get into as possible. She leaned against the couch and pushed it up against the front door blocking the only entrance. She checked all the windows making sure they were closed and locked. She then hid behind the front door. She figured if they did force themselves in through the front door, she could dispatch them one by one with her katana as they entered. Assuming they didn't have guns like Omega had said.

Michonne's heart was beating rapidly and she tried to slow her breathing down to relax.

_You can do this Michonne. You have to do this for your children, for your baby._

She rubbed her belly and felt the baby move again.

_Just hold on for the ride baby._

She could hear a creak on the steps outside. Someone was sneaking onto the porch. Not touching the curtains, Michonne peeked through a crack and saw the outline of three people creeping closer to the front door. A shiver went down Michonne's spine.

The doorknob rattled as someone tried to turn it, but it was locked. She pressed herself against the wall as she heard more creaking on the porch. A loud bang made her jump. She peeked out through the hole again and saw one of the Walker People slamming a club into the doorknob.

_Shit._

She glanced at the bedroom where Judy, Joy, and Omega were hiding.

_Stay quiet, just stay quiet,_ she tried to communicate with the children.

A loud bang shook the wall she was leaning against as the doorknob was hit again. She heard gunshots and screams in the distance. Michonne took another deep breath and tried to clear her mind of anything else but her and her sword. There was a third bang and she heard the clatter of metal falling to the floor. They had knocked the door knob off. The door opened inward slowly and then met resistance as it hit the couch.

"They are inside" someone said softly.

"Send out the boy and we won't harm you" she heard someone call.

Michonne remained crouched behind the door, her heart beating a mile a minute.

The door suddenly slammed against the couch, pushing the couch forward a few inches. Again and again the door was slammed into the couch until the door swung open fully, almost hitting Michonne in the face. She knew this was her only moment to take advantage of the element of surprise.

She leaped from behind the door and shoved her katana through the neck of one of the intruders. She quickly withdrew her weapon from the neck and the intruder dropped to the floor with a thud. Trying not to leave a second for the intruders to recover, she spun around, swinging her katana through the air trying to behead the next person, but they quickly ducked and aimed something heavy and wooden at her legs.

Michonne stumbled backwards but didn't fall. Her thighs burned as she regained her balance and held up her sword, panting from the exertion.

The two remaining intruders looked from her to their comrade that she just killed. One of them stepped forward nodding her head. "So they aren't  _all_  weak in this town" the female voice said, sounding amused.

Michonne stood with her katana held up, desperately trying to regain her breath. The masked woman looked Michonne up and down. "And you are pregnant. Did the men here get the jump on you?". When Michonne didn't answer, the woman called loudly "Omega, come out. Leave with us and these people will be spared." There was no answer.

Michonne just stared, calculating the best way to kill these people and protect her children. The woman slowly advanced on Michonne and Michonne swung towards her again, almost gutting her in the middle.

The woman chuckled. "Beta, get the boy" the woman said, and the second intruder started to move towards the bedroom. Michonne quickly ran forward, blocking the way down the hallway and placing her katana in Beta's face. Beta swung a large knife towards Michonne and Michonne sidestepped her, throwing Beta off balance, and then she punched Beta in the face. She then quickly kicked Beta away to give herself enough distance to use her katana. As the sword swung downward to stab her, Beta rolled out the way and kicked Michonne in the stomach, causing Michonne to stumble backwards, but she didn't fall.

Michonne clutched her belly, slightly panicked.

_Please be ok baby, please be ok._

But she couldn't dwell on it, Beta was running at her now. Michonne, calling on all of her pre-pregnancy flexibility, dropped to the ground just as Beta was about to body slam her, and stuck out her legs, tripping Beta. Beta crashed to the ground and slammed into the bedroom door, and Michonne straddled her as quickly as she could with her large belly. She quickly took her katana and pressed it into Beta's neck, killing her.

Michonne, feeling completely out of breath and dizzy, struggled to get up from the floor and turn towards the woman who was watching the scene play out from the living room. She thought the woman would come at her any moment, while she was trying to stand, but the woman stayed where she was. Michonne turned and held up her sword again.

"You could've been one of us" the woman said with a nod. "It's a shame I have to kill you now. Just know I have great respect for you. I am Alpha."

Michonne was sweating from the exertion, her thigh was throbbing from where she was hit, and her heart was pounding, but she readied herself for this last kill. This is the woman who had allowed Omega to be starved and abused, who had terrified the poor boy. She wouldn't hurt him again.

Alpha raised her club, and Michonne moved from the hallway back into the living room to give herself more room to swing her katana. The woman began circling Michonne, looking for a weak spot, but Michonne circled along with her, facing the woman at all times.

Alpha suddenly swung her club at Michonne's head and Michonne jerked her head backwards just in time, the club swinging past her nose. As Alpha recovered from the swing, Michonne brought her katana down in a stabbing motion into the woman's side, but she missed. The woman, knowing she had almost been stabbed, smiled. "Yes, you're good."

As the woman brought her club up again, Michonne tried another swing, hitting the woman's shoulder and drawing blood. Alpha, ignoring her injury, threw herself at Michonne, tackling her to the floor and sitting on top of her belly. Michonne dropped her sword and used both hands to push the woman's chin upwards, trying to push her off. Alpha bit Michonne's hand hard and Michonne reflexively pulled her hand back, giving Alpha enough room to punch Michonne hard in the face. Michonne gasped at the impact, but quickly head butted Alpha to get her off of her belly.

Alpha rolled off of Michonne and Michonne tried to slowly pull herself to her feet, her head spinning from lack of oxygen and the impact of the headbutt. She stumbled a little, but she pulled herself upwards again. She reached down for her katana but Alpha quickly kicked it away from her reach. Alpha ran at Michonne again, and Michonne pulled a knife from the back of her pants and stabbed it into Alpha's stomach. Alpha stumbled backwards in surprise, looking down at the small red stain that was getting larger.

"Yes, you're good" Alpha repeated again, clutching her stomach. Michonne, keeping her eyes on Alpha, bent down and picked up her katana again. She cautiously approached Alpha and swung her katana to behead the woman when Alpha quickly thrust a knife into Michonne's belly, causing Michonne's katana to loudly clatter to the floor.


	10. Chapter 10

Michonne stumbled backwards in surprise. She knew she was injured but she couldn't feel the pain, she couldn't feel anything. She glanced down and saw the knife still sticking out of her belly.

_No! My baby. My baby._

She clutched her belly and backed away from Alpha who was kneeling on the floor and also clutching her own.

"You are a warrior... I wish we were on the same side…" Alpha gasped out.

Michonne wasn't listening to her. Her babies were in danger. She still couldn't feel any pain thanks to the adrenaline coursing through her body, and she stumbled forward towards Alpha and her katana. She stuck her foot out and kicked the katana towards herself before Alpha could grab it. She then tried to bend down to pick it up, but the shift in position pushed the knife into her more deeply and she moaned in pain.

Alpha, although seemingly unable to stand, laughed at Michonne. "Omega!" Alpha called again. To Michonne's horror she heard the bedroom door unlocking. "No!" Michonne moaned "stay inside!". She moved to go towards the bedroom and her legs gave out, and she crashed to the floor.

Michonne heard Judith scream "Mommy!". She glanced towards the bedroom and saw Judith and Omega running towards her. Michonne reached her hand out, begging them not to come to her, "stay inside" Michonne gasped, but they kept running. Omega got to Michonne first, but to her surprise he leaped over her with the knife out, and plunged it into Alpha's chest, who had been slowly crawling towards Michonne while her back was turned.

Alpha gasped and spit up blood from her chest wound. Omega stood over her, staring down at her.

Alpha smiled through her gasps. "Yes… yes Omega… this is what… I tried… to teach you". She stretched an arm up towards him and he took a step back, his eyes wide. "I wanted you… to survive…" The smile slowly dropped from her face. "I was harsh but… I loved you… and your mother… Tasha…" She closed her eyes as her breathing got more ragged, and she whispered "my sister…"

Omega's eyes filled with tears but he didn't come any closer to Alpha. "I'm not Omega anymore. My name is Tommy" he said softly. "Mommy named me Tommy".

Alpha's chest continued to rise and fall raggedly but she no longer responded.

Judith crouched down over Michonne. "Mommy… you're hurt" she said, her eyes scanning Michonne's body.

Michonne, thinking only of her babies, said to Judith "Judy… close the front door… push the couch…" A sudden pain interrupted Michonne's sentence and she shut her eyes tight.

_No. No!_

A contraction paralyzed Michonne's body and she lay flat on the floor unable to move.

_Please no. It's too early._

"Mommy!" Judy yelled, terrified. Joy, who was standing in frozen in the bedroom doorway, burst into tears.

Omega went to the front door and pushed the couch in front of it like Michonne had said. He then looked down and noticed Beta and Gamma lying dead on the floor.

_They will become the walking ones. They will hurt my family._

Omega quickly took his knife and plunged it through Beta and Gamma's head.

"Mommy, what do I do?" Judy asked Michonne. "Should I, should I take the knife out?"

Michonne, barely able to speak whispered "no… leave it…"

"Mommy, you're leaking" Judy said, looking down at Michonne's belly. "There's water…"

Michonne glanced down and saw that there was water coming out of the knife wound. Not blood, water.

"Judy…" she gasped, as she felt the warm liquid spilling down her abdomen, and then her eyes rolled up in her head.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What? What do you see?" Carl yelled up at Lydia, his eyes portraying his panic.

"There are walking ones everywhere. I don't see any of your people… or mine…it's lost. We must go…"

"NO!" Carl screamed, his yell attracting more walkers. "Open the gate, then if  _you_  want to leave you can. Open it!"

Carl turned around quickly and pushed away a walker that had gotten too close. He was unarmed and he looked around quickly for a weapon. Finding a large tree branch he used it to bash the walker in the head, cracking through its fragile skull. He turned back around to look up at Lydia but she was now gone.

"Lydia?" Carl called.

Another walker lunged at him and he turned his body causing it to fall to the ground. He then quickly stepped on its head, the walker's juices adding to his already blood soaked clothing.

Carl ran back over to the front gates waiting for any sign that Lydia was about to open them. His mind couldn't help but go back to Lydia's words.

_"_ _I don't see any of your people… or mine…" Lock down! The town must be on lock down. During lock down civilians stay inside. Enid and Michonne and the kids will be safe. But where is the rest of the Hilltop defense team? They should be manning the walls, they should be out killing the invaders._

Gunshots and screams could suddenly be heard coming from the direction of the big house. The sound chilled Carl to the bone. Something big was happening in there.

The gates suddenly started opening and Carl stepped back before they hit him. They opened only a few inches and Carl quickly squeezed himself inside before they closed again. As he turned to look at Hilltop, his mouth opened in horror. There were walkers all over the streets, as well as bodies. Some were the bodies of Walker People, the other bodies were people he knew, people from the Hilltop defense team. Many of them had wounds from spears and knives, but others had clearly been munched on by walkers.

Pushing aside his horror and keeping his eye on his task, Carl quickly snatched a machine gun from one of the bodies. He looked up and saw Lydia climbing down nearby scaffolding from where she opened the gates.

"We have to help them" Carl said to her. Lydia froze like a deer in headlights, and looked like she was about to climb back over the wall and run off. "Look, if you want you can go, I understand. But they need me."

It took everything inside of Carl to resist the urge to go back to his home and check on his wife, but he knew she'd be ok. He turned and ran towards the screams coming from the big house, Lydia reluctantly on his heels.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick burst through the tunnel entrance leading to the big house with his gun drawn. It was fairly quiet and empty in the basement, except for two dead walkers, and three hilltop residents who had been attacked and half eaten by the herd, but he could hear gunfire and moans coming from upstairs. As he ran up the steps he almost bumped headfirst into a walker. He quickly pulled his knife and stabbed it in the head, knocking it out the way so he could keep moving. Enid was right behind him, her gun drawn as well.

All Rick could think about was Carl.  _What if he wasn't with the Walker People? What if they'd killed him? They certainly didn't need him now that they'd found a way into Hilltop._  But he pushed those thoughts away as he cautiously entered Hilltop's front parlor.

There were a few walkers milling about, but Rick could hear screaming and loud bangs coming from the rooms upstairs. The team ran upstairs as Rick turned to Enid. "Get to the house and see if Carl is there. See if they're ok. As soon as we take care of things here I'll meet you. Take Gregory with you," Rick ordered. Seeing Enid's defiant face, Rick added " _Please_ ", staring into Enid's eyes, begging her to go.

Enid opened her mouth as if she were going to protest being sent away, but she realized she had to see if Carl had made it back home. She had to know if he was ok. And she knew Rick needed her to check on the family for him. She nodded at Rick and pointed her gun at Gregory, who seemed to be grateful to get out of Rick's sight, using her head to point towards the door. She cautiously made her way to the doors of the big house, ready to take out any walkers or intruders that got in her way.

Rick sprinted up the steps and got halfway to the top when a hail of gunfire broke out. He slowly crawled to the top of the steps and saw his team firing on Walker People who were in the hallways trying to break down the bedroom doors. They were diving into rooms to get out of the way, and there were loud screams coming from the rooms with their doors closed. Once the hallway was cleared, the team cautiously checked each unlocked room.

Rick slowly opened a door that he saw a Walker Person dive into. In the darkness of the room he saw the room's former owner laying on the floor with a knife wound through the chest. "Come out" Rick called, scanning the seemingly empty room. There was no response. "I saw you run in here" Rick said. Someone slowly stood from behind the bed.

"Put your hands up" Rick ordered.

The figure of a woman stood there, staring at him.

"I said put your hands up" Rick said again, pointing his gun.

The intruder stared him in his eyes. "I will not surrender."

"Where is my son?" Rick asked, taking the safety off the gun.

The woman chuckled. "Dead now. And you'll soon follow."

Rick's heart dropped at her words. "You're lying" he growled, half asking her and half telling her.

She continued to stare. "If he's not dead yet, he will be."

Her words gave Rick a ray of hope. She didn't know if Carl was dead or not.

"Are you going to put your hands up or not?" Rick asked, slightly annoyed that she was wasting his time.

To answer, the woman ran at him with her knife raised, aiming for his chest. Rick swiftly shot her in the head and turned around to leave. As he walked back into the hallway he saw the defense team checking on the residents who managed to lock their doors and survive the Walker People's attack, unfortunately there weren't many. Most of the rooms in the big house were littered with bodies.

Rick had other things to worry about though. He turned quickly and headed down the stairs, making a beeline for the door. He swung the door open and was startled to see Carl standing there pointing a machine gun in his face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Enid snuck across the street, trying to avoid the walkers that were still wandering the town while keeping an eye on Gregory. She didn't trust that man for a minute. As a matter of fact, she was shocked that he had cooperated so well so far. Maybe the finger Michonne removed from his hand made him rethink his life choices… or not, she thought as she noticed his eyes moving left and right looking for a possible escape.

She pressed her gun into his back. "Just give me  _more_  of a reason" she begged, wanting to shoot him so badly. He stiffened when he felt the butt of the gun in his back and he continued walking. They had made good progress, just a block and a half from her home when she saw two Walker People heading towards her home. She put her finger to her lips and nodded towards the Walker People. The two of them followed the Walker People as best they could without being spotted, and Enid could hear parts of their conversation.

"Alpha… Gamma went to that house. Didn't come out… Omega…" Enid could only catch parts of their conversation but she knew she would have to take them down.

"You take the one on the right" Enid whispered to Gregory. She turned to look at him and his eyes were wide, but he nodded his head.

She stealthily moved closer to the Walker People who were focused on getting to the house. When she was within range she raised her gun, aiming at the back of one of their heads. She pulled the trigger, a gunshot ripping through the air as the woman fell to the ground. The second woman spun around, and without looking for him, Enid knew that Gregory had run off.

_That bastard._

The second woman ran at her and she fired again, missing. She barely had time to dive out of the way as a knife came swinging at her.

She wanted to shoot her gun again but the woman was too close, so she tried to back away but she tripped over the sidewalk and fell hard on her butt. The woman, taking advantage, kicked her in the face, and ignoring the pain, Enid grabbed her foot and pulled the woman down too. She fumbled for her gun again but let out a roar of pain as she was slashed in the thigh. She kicked at the woman with her other leg and rolled over, desperate to stand up. Finally, she struggled to her feet and spun around, quickly firing her gun. The woman was hit in the chest, killing her.

Four walkers, noticing the commotion and hearing the gunshots were shuffling over towards Enid at a quick pace.

Panting and with her heart racing from her near death experience, Enid limped back to her home, blood slowly staining her pants red.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Mommy wake up!" Judy screamed in Michonne's face. "Please mommy… I don't know what to do" she said, sobbing.

Omega, after putting down Beta and Gamma, went to stand back over Alpha who was breathing shallowly but still alive. He seemed frozen in place, in a trance as he stared at her.

Judy wracked her little mind trying to think of what to do. They needed to find a grown up, but she knew Michonne wouldn't want them to go outside. And more and more water was dripping out of Michonne.

Judy thought back to the year before when her daddy had brought home a new bike for her. She had begged him to bring it with them when they had traveled to visit Carl and Enid, and to her delight he'd allowed her to bring it along. She was riding up and down the small dirt road in front of Carl and Enid's house when her training wheels got stuck in a patch of grass and she fell from the bike, getting a large bloody gash on her knee. While Enid cleaned up the cut, she had told Judy "If you ever are bleeding, you just press down on the cut and the bleeding stops". Judy had tried it on her own cut and was amazed.

Judy looked down at Michonne who wasn't moving. The knife in her belly rising and falling every time she took a breath.

_Mommy said don't take the knife out. But if I push down around the knife, maybe water will stop coming out._

Judy took both hands and put them on either sides of the knife, trying not to move it. She then pushed down on Michonne's belly. Michonne took in a sharp breath and moaned, but was still unresponsive. Judy tried to keep her hands still while pressing, but she was so scared, she was shaking. She suddenly realized she hadn't heard Joy in a while.

She turned her head to the bedroom doorway and saw that Joy had slid down the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest, shaking and staring at Michonne as tears slid down her face.

"Come Joyjoy" Judy called, trying to distract her traumatized sister, "I need you to help me."

Joy didn't move, but her eyes rolled from Michonne to Judy's face.

"Joy, come on. Mommy needs you."

Joy blinked a few times as if coming out of a daze. She stood and walked slowly over to Judy and Michonne, stopping right next to them.

"You have the most important job" Judy said, motioning with her eyes that Joy should sit down.

Joy, seemingly intrigued that she had an important job, kneeled down next to Judy and Michonne.

"You have to hold mommy's hand, ok? And don't let go".

Joy slowly nodded her head and took Michonne's hand, squeezing it tight, while Judy continued to press on the wound.

After a minute of pressing Judy noticed there wasn't as much water coming out of the wound. She smiled, pleased with herself, when there was a bang at the door.

The noise snapped Omega out of his trance. He grabbed his knife and stared at the door.

"Michonne! Open the door it's Enid!", Enid called as loudly as she dared. There were still walkers all over the place, and the four that had spotted her were still following her.

She knocked again and realized that the doorknob had been knocked off. Her heart plummeted. Someone had tried to get in, and it seemed like they succeeded. Enid pushed on the door and it opened a little, but then bumped into something.

_Oh God, please don't be a body._

"Michonne!" Enid yelled a little louder.

"Enid!" she heard a child's voice yell.

"Judy?" Enid asked. She then heard something large being moved away from the door. The door could finally swing open all the way, and Enid limped inside, immediately tripping over a body with a knife wound through the neck.

"Oh God, is that a…" Enid froze, her mind assessing the situation so quickly that what seemed like minutes were only seconds.

_Where's Michonne?_

She quickly scanned the room, taking in Omega who had been the one to move the couch. He seemed rattled but unharmed. There was another body on the floor not far away, with its neck cut open.  _Michonne had to have done that. Definitely._  Enid's eyes dove further into the room. There was another body further inside.  _Damn, Michonne took out three people?_  And then Enid spotted Joy and Judy kneeling next to a fourth body.

"Michonne!" Enid cried out, forgetting her own stab wound and sprinting over to where Michonne lay still on the ground, a knife jutting from her belly.

"Oh God" Enid said "What… How long… Is she…"

So many things popped into Enid's mind she didn't know what question to ask first.

_Get a grip Enid. You're a nurse. Assess the situation, figure out what you need to do and do it._

"Ok" Enid said, more to herself than anyone else. "Judy, how long has your mommy been like this?"

"I don't know" Judy said, and suddenly it was like she couldn't stop talking. "The woman stabbed her, and she was talking at first, and then she just fell… and then I told her she had water coming out her belly and then her eyes went white and she went to sleep and I didn't know what to do and I remembered what you said when I fell off my bike so I tried to make the water stop and she said not to take out the knife so I left it and…" tears exploded from Judy's eyes as if she were holding them in for so long that they couldn't be contained anymore. "I didn't know what to do!" Judy said again, still pressing on Michonne's belly, seemingly unable to let go.

Enid wrapped her arms around Judy's shoulders and gave her a hug. "You did well Judy, you did so well. I'm so proud of you. You did the right thing. Keep your hands right there ok? Keep pressing down. You're doing the right thing."

Enid reached down to feel Michonne's pulse. It was weak but steady. She pulled out her own knife and used it to cut Michonne's shirt off so she could see the wound better. The knife was going straight into her uterus, that's where all the fluid was coming from. It had punctured the amniotic sac and the baby was in big trouble. If it wasn't dead yet it would be if it wasn't taken out now.

_Oh God, what if it turns when it's still inside of her?_  Enid thought, her mind going to her own unborn child. A chill went down her spine.  _Stop it, Stop it! If Judy can hold it together, so can you._

"I need to do surgery now. I need… I need to get her to the infirmary" Enid said, but as soon as she thought it she knew it was impossible. They'd never be able to move her safely alone, and with walkers and Walker People running about it was unrealistic. Next option, bring the infirmary here.

"I have to go get my bag from the infirmary" Enid said. "I have to get my tools for surgery, maybe I can find Dr. Carson and bring him back here too".

"No!" Judy said, her eyes wide. "No! You can't leave us here."

"Don't go Enid" Joy said, her eyes filling with tears.

Enid's heart was breaking, but there was no other way. "I have to. You are being so brave right now. I just need you to be brave for a little longer. You keep your hands on her belly ok? You're saving her life right now Judy, and the baby's. I will be right back, I promise, and your daddy's on his way ok? He'll be here soon, probably before I get back". Enid turned to Omega. "You keep watch alright? When I leave you put that couch back against the door".

"No" Omega said quietly, stunning everyone. "You're hurt too. You will be slow. I can get there fast. I know how to hide from the walking ones. I can get there and no one will see me."

Enid's mouth dropped open. "I'm not gonna let you…"

"I can do this!" Omega said. "I can do it and come back"

Enid put her hand to her head in frustration. She was limping, and it would take her longer to get to the infirmary and back. Plus, she really should stay with Michonne in case things started going downhill fast. But sending a child outside into that… she'd never be able to forgive herself if something happened to him.

"I will use Alpha's mask" Omega said, bending down and pulling the mask off of Alpha's face.

"That's Alpha?" Enid asked, surprised.

"I stabbed her, and I will do the same to anyone who tries to hurt our family" Omega said.

Enid smiled.  _Our family._

Enid relented. "Ok kiddo, but if you're not back in ten minutes I'm coming for you. My bag is in the infirmary's office, under the desk. If you see Doctor Carson tell him Michonne needs an emergency C-section. He'll bring the right stuff. If you don't see him, just get back here with the bag. Everything else… I'll just make do… ok?"

Omega nodded "Ok". Enid gave Omega a hug. "Come back quick Omega" Judy said.

"My name is Tommy" Omega said. "It's Tommy now".

Before anyone could say anything else, he pulled Alpha's mask on, took out his knife, and left the house, closing the door behind him.


	11. Chapter 11

"Judy how are you doing? Do your hands hurt? Are you ok?"

Judy nodded. "I'm ok… Is my mommy gonna die?" she asked Enid. The scared look in Judy's eyes almost brought Enid to tears.

"I… I don't know Judy. But I'll do everything I can to save her", a tear snuck down Enid's cheek, "and the baby too". They were all quiet for a moment and then Enid turned to Joy.

"How are you honey, you still have mommy's hand?"

Joy nodded sadly and raised Michonne's hand to show Enid. "I didn't let go yet" she said proudly.

"Good girl" Enid replied.

Michonne suddenly took a deep breath and her body shuddered. Her eyelids started to flutter open.

"Michonne? Michonne!" Enid cried, moving closer to her.

Michonne, still in a daze, swatted her hands to push everyone away from her. She was still trying to fight.

"Michonne it's Enid. It's ok, you're ok. Shhh… stay still"

Michonne's eyes focused on Enid's face. "My baby?" she mumbled.

"We're doing everything we can to save it ok? But you have to relax and stay still. Can you do that?"

Michonne's eyes flitted over to Judy who was still pressing down on her belly, and then she looked over at Joy. "My girls… love you…" Michonne whispered. "I love you too mommy" Judy said. Joy leaned over and kissed Michonne's cheek. Michonne smiled and focused on Enid again. "Save my baby… no matter what"

Enid leaned in closer to Michonne. "I'm gonna save both of you, just hold on…"

"Baby first… please… promise me"

"Michonne I…"

Enid stopped when she saw the look in Michonne's eyes.

"Ok… If it comes down to that" Enid whispered into Michonne's ear so the children couldn't hear.

"Carl?" Michonne asked, but Enid noticed her voice was slurring. "We haven't found him yet… Michonne, how do you feel?"

"Cold"

Enid reached over and touched Michonne's neck, checking her vitals again. Her pulse was weak but faster now, and her skin felt clammy. Enid could see the pupils in Michonne's eyes were large.

_Shit, she's in shock._

"Joy, I need you to go get some towels, get all the towels and sheets you can grab, and bring some pillows from the pillow fort. Joy let go of Michonne's hand and ran off to find what Enid asked for.

"What's happening? Will she be ok?" Judy asked.

"I'm ok Judy" Michonne slurred "I'm ok".

Joy came back with towels, sheets, and pillows. Enid stuffed the pillows underneath Michonne, trying to elevate Michonne's legs and bring blood back to her heart. She took a sheet and spread it over Michonne's chest in an attempt to keep her warmer.

_Where is Rick?_  Enid thought. She knew having Rick around would make the situation a little more stressful, but she also knew Michonne needed him there. Rick would calm Michonne, and the girls. But Enid also couldn't help but wonder,  _where is Carl?_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Carl?!" Rick cried, pushing the machine gun out of his face and hugging his son.

"Dad!" Carl said, clinging on to Rick.

"Carl are you ok? What happened? Oh God… I thought…" Rick stepped back so he could look at his son. "We went to look for you at the Walker People camp but they were gone."

"I escaped dad. This is Lydia, she saved me"

Rick finally noticed the dirty, disheveled girl standing behind Carl watching the scene nervously.

"Thank you Lydia" Rick said.

"Where's Enid? Is everyone ok?"

"I sent her back to the house to check on Michonne and the kids. She insisted on coming with me to find you. Look, we can talk later, I have to make sure they're ok."

"Ok" Carl said. "Let's get home. Watch your back, there are still Walker People wandering around"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tommy crouched behind a patch of bushes as one of his former people snuck by. It was odd to be hiding from the people that he'd lived with his whole life, the people who he thought he'd always be with. Being with this new family was something he'd never experienced. They loved each other, they protected each other, they'd die for each other. He never knew any people like that. His whole life had been survival and dominance. His people fought to survive, and fought to make it to the top of the social ladder. No one loved, no one showed emotion.

_Emotion makes you weak_. He heard Alpha's voice reciting it in his head. She had told him that every time he cried about something, and then she'd punch or slap him. If he started crying more the beating would get more severe. Over time he learned not to cry, at least not in front of the others. But when he was sent to watch the herds, or check the traps set to catch animals, he would find a spot and cry until he was exhausted. Mostly he'd cry for his mother. He was young when she was murdered, and he barely remembered her face, but he remembered how she made him feel. She loved him. She was the only one who did. When she was away from Alpha she'd hold his hand or hug him, things that were forbidden by Alpha.

He remembered the looks she'd give Alpha behind her back, and the whispered arguments they would have away from the others. His mother wanted this kind of family for him, and he'd finally found it. He would do his best to protect them.

He watched as Epsilon, the woman who's beating was the reason he'd run away from his people in the first place, crept up behind one of the trailers. She was trying to find a way in. They were still looking for him, they didn't know Alpha was dead,  _or almost dead_.

Omega turned towards the infirmary. Nothing would stop him from getting there. He had to get the bag that would save Michonne and her baby.

He reached the block that the infirmary was located on and easily slipped past a small group of walkers. He cautiously approached the door and knocked. There was no response. He went to the windows and peered in. Inside was dark and he couldn't see anyone. Tommy tried the door and was shocked to find it unlocked. His guard was immediately up.

"Dr. Carson?" He whispered as he entered the house. There was silence in the home. Tommy crept into the area used as the infirmary and froze in the doorway. There had been ten patients in the infirmary, people recovering from the initial attack from his people. They were all dead, murdered in their beds. They hadn't been stabbed in the head. Tommy knew his people were waiting to add them to their herds. Tommy crept past the murdered patients and entered the office where Enid said her bag was. He made his way around the desk and found Dr. Carson with his neck slit, his fingers still wrapped around a gun.

Tommy was overwhelmed by the death around him and tears escaped from his eyes. He wiped at them with the back of his hand.

_I need to get this bag back to Enid._

He grabbed the medical bag, and thinking quickly he grabbed some other important looking medical equipment off the shelves and shoved them into the bag.

_Maybe she can use this stuff too. Maybe this will help._

Tommy hefted the large bag, now almost too heavy to carry, onto his shoulders. He closed his eyes as he ran past the murdered patients, and made his way back out onto the street.

XXXXXXXXX

Carl, Rick, and Lydia ran towards Carl's trailer. He could hear gunshots. There were other Hilltop residents who were shooting at the Walker People and/or walkers, but Carl couldn't help right now. He had to make sure his wife and his mom and sisters were ok first. He ran up to his trailer door and immediately noticed the doorknob laying on the porch.

"Michonne! Enid!" Rick called in a panic, banging on the front door. His banging inadvertently pushed the door open and it hit the couch that had been moved back in front of the door.

"Rick? Joy, open the door for daddy" he could hear Enid say to Joy. He heard the small child desperately pushing on something heavy and a scrape across the floor as the object moved. Rick then swung the door open.

"Daddy!" Joy called, leaping into his arms with tears running down her face, "Daddy!" and then she broke down, crying hysterically.

"Joy? Are you…" Rick took in the scene around him and his blood ran cold.

Carl pushed his way into the room. "Enid? Enid!" he ran over to her and froze when he saw Michonne on the floor. "Mom!"

Carl's words pulled Rick out of his shock. "Michonne!". Still carrying Joy, Rick leaped over the bodies that lay on the floor and knelt next to Michonne, noticing Judy and Enid trying to tend to her and the knife jutting out of her belly. "What happened? Michonne! Is she… Oh God…" Rick said, his body beginning to shake.

"She's alive Rick" Enid said. "But the baby needs to come out  _now_ ".

Rick put Joy down and grabbed Michonne's hand. He looked at Enid with tears in his eyes. "Is the baby alive?"

Enid could see the desperation in his eyes, the terror.

"I don't know" Enid said, "I… I think so… I can't tell until I get a stethoscope"

Enid glanced up and saw Carl staring down at Michonne, the desperation and terror in his eyes mirroring Rick's.

Enid stood up with difficulty due to the gash in her leg which was still dripping blood, and noticed the stab wound in Carl's shoulder and the slash across his face from Alpha's knife. She wrapped her arms around a trembling Carl. "Oh baby" she whispered, "I know… I know…" He pulled her into him, burying his face in her neck. "Are you ok?" she asked him. He nodded. "Are you?" he whispered. "Ask me later" she said, pulling away from him and returning to Michonne's side.

Rick looked up at Judy who was shaking and still pressing down on Michonne's wound. "Here honey, let me do it" Rick said, placing his hands over Judy's. She looked up at her father and didn't say anything. "It's ok Judy, it's ok". She slowly slid her hands out from underneath Rick's, and Rick began to add pressure.

"Come here sweety" he said. Judy moved to Rick's side, and he planted a kiss on her forehead, "you did a good job you know that? You saved your mama, you're so brave."

Michonne who was in and out of consciousness felt the change in the pressure on her belly, and felt that larger, stronger hands were now pressing on her. Her eyes fluttered open and she took in Rick's face very close to hers.

"Michonne" Rick said, thrilled that she opened her eyes "Michonne honey just hang on, everything is going to be ok. We're gonna get the baby out ok?"

"Carl?" she whispered.

Carl kneeled down next to her. "I'm here mom, I'm right here with you". Seeing his face made her smile. She reached towards him and he grabbed her hand. "Carl. You can't be here for this. Please… not again."

He knew she was referring to Lori and what he had to witness during Judith's birth. "Mom, I'm gonna be here for you, no matter what" he said.

"No…  _please_ " she begged.

He nodded. He wouldn't argue with her.

Michonne's eyes moved up to Rick. "Rick… I love you" she said. "You know I love you" he replied, "don't talk honey, save your strength". Rick turned to Enid. "Where's Dr. Carson? What are we waiting for?"

"Omega… he went to go get my medical bag from the infirmary. I didn't want him to go, but…" she glanced down at her gash "I couldn't get there myself. I'm hoping he comes back with Dr. Carson."

Rick sighed, having a million question to ask, but he decided to focus in on the most important ones.

"And if Dr. Carson doesn't come, you can do this?" he asked Enid seriously, "here? On the floor?"

Enid turned a little pale. "I've… never done an emergency c-section before. I've read about it, I've seen Dr. Carson do one for one of the women here. But I've never done it. Let's just hope he comes, ok?" she said, glancing at Michonne.

"What can we do to prepare?" Carl asked. The question seemed to trigger the inner nurse in Enid.

"Well now that you guys are here, we're gonna have to move her to the kitchen table, and we need everything to be as sterile as possible. Carl, scrub the table down and then boil at least 4 pots with hot water. We'll have to use the boiling water to sterilize some things. Judith, go in the bathroom cabinet and bring the alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. Joy, look in my top drawer and give Carl the scissors in there, tell him they have to be sterilized." Everyone stood to do what Enid had asked of them, leaving Michonne, Enid and Rick alone in the hallway, as Lydia was standing by the front door keeping watch.

"How are you doing?" Enid asked Michonne. She was quiet for a bit and then whispered "My baby… hasn't moved."

Enid nodded. She knew Michonne's concern. "The best thing you can do for your baby is to relax and keep your heart rate down. Just breathe ok? This will be over soon."

Michonne closed her eyes for a bit, trying to relax further.

A troubling memory raced through Enid's head causing her eyes to widen, and she took a sharp breath. Not wanting to startle or upset Michonne, Enid caught Rick's eyes and leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Rick, I just want to let you know… when we do the c-section… we don't have anesthesia…"


	12. Chapter 12

Rick's head snapped to Enid. He wanted to ask her what the hell she was talking about, but Michonne had closed her eyes and he didn't want to stress her. He wanted to ask a million questions, but he was applying pressure to Michonne's wound and he couldn't get up and move. He turned pale and his head began to spin. He thought he might pass out.

_When we do the C-section… we don't have anesthesia._

Rick closed his eyes and took a deep breath to keep himself from trembling. This was too much. Michonne had already been through too much. He looked at Enid who had an apologetic expression on her face. She looked like she wanted to say more, but neither of them wanted to tell Michonne yet. They wanted to let her get as much rest as she could.

He gave Enid a curt nod and stared down at the knife that was threatening the life of his wife and his baby.

_Who did this to her?_

Rick searched the room for the first time since he got back and was startled to see three bodies on the floor. He could tell from the injuries that Michonne had taken them all out.  _That's my girl._

He studied the body of the woman closest to Michonne. She was the only one without a mask on, and Rick immediately noticed she was still breathing. He quickly turned to Enid. "Who is that?" he whispered.

Enid who had gotten lost in her thoughts, turned to see who Rick was talking about.

"That is Alpha" Lydia responded, startling Rick and Enid who had forgotten about her.

"According to Omeg… Um, Tommy, that's what he goes by now, that's who stabbed her" Enid added.

"Here, press down" Rick ordered, motioning to Michonne's abdomen. Without another word Enid took over pressing on Michonne as Rick quickly got to his feet. He pulled his knife and kneeled down next to Alpha who had been stabbed in the abdomen and chest. Rick wished she was conscious so she could see the face of the person who finally ended her, but he'd have to settle. He quickly jammed his knife into her brain, killing her.

"Stupid bitch" he spat, full of venom for the woman who might possibly have killed his wife and baby and tried to put his other children in danger.

Just then, there was a soft knock on the door. Rick looked to Enid with a questioning expression and she mouthed 'Tommy'.

Lydia snuck to the window and looked out, seeing the small boy carrying a large bag that was half his size. She quickly opened the door and Tommy, out of breath, stumbled inside dropping the bag. Rick quickly hugged him, surprising the boy, but he didn't pull away.

"They're all dead" he said. Rick pulled back from Tommy and squinted his eyes so he could see him better. "Who?"

"Everyone in the infirmary. Dr. Carson, he's dead too"

Enid's mouth dropped open and she brought her hands to her face, momentarily forgetting about Michonne. Michonne let out a low moan as water began to drip from the wound again, and Enid quickly recovered, but Michonne woke up.

Rick went pale and glanced at Enid who looked like she was about to throw up. He quickly scooted over next to her and put his hands back on Michonne, allowing Enid to move her hands away.

_I can't do this by myself. I don't know how. Oh my God I'm gonna kill Michonne and the baby. Carl will hate me. Rick will hate me. The whole family will hate me. I can't. I can't._

In normal circumstances, where there were teams of doctors and all the necessary medical equipment, this would be a difficult surgery. Michonne's organs could go into failure at any moment from lack of blood flow, plus, with the C-section she would be losing more blood and there was no way to replenish the blood she'd lose, making her blood pressure drop even faster. Also, the knife jutting from her body was full of bacteria and they only had basic antibiotics. She most likely would have an infection, and if the knife injured the baby, it would too. Enid also noticed the lack of blood coming from the knife wound. Although not bleeding helped to keep Michonne alive this long, once the pressure from the knife was removed, Enid may not be able to control the bleeding and she could bleed out on the kitchen table. And then there was the fact that this baby was a month premature. There was no guarantee that the baby would be able to breathe on its own, and without incubators or equipment, the baby may die regardless of what she did. To add insult to injury, Enid wasn't a doctor and had little experience with this type of surgery involving two patients.

The weight of all their problems suddenly weighed down on Enid. Before she could think about it she burst into tears, and she got up as quickly as she could with her injury and pregnancy to leave the room so as not to disturb Michonne. With Rick's eyes following her, she limped into the kitchen, startling Carl. Once inside the kitchen she sobbed, sliding down the wall until she was sitting on the floor.

Carl came immediately, plopping down on the floor next to her and resting her head against his chest. He began to cry too. They didn't say a word, both lost in their emotions and taking comfort in each other's presence.

"She may die" Enid sniffled. "She… she's probably gonna die… Dr. Carson is dead and I can't do this… Oh God… I'm so sorry" she said, crying into Carl's chest.

Carl, startled by the news, just stared. "Dr. Carson is… he's dead?"

Enid nodded her head and started sobbing again. Carl felt himself begin to panic, but looking down at his wife a sudden calm came over him.  _She can do this. I know she can._

"Enid" Carl said calmly. She didn't look up. Carl gently cupped her chin and pulled her tear streaked face up to meet his. "Enid" he said again, forcing her eyes to meet his. "You can do this. I know, because I've seen what you can do. You saved that woman who had a spear in her arm. You've saved countless other people who've come back injured from runs. You  _are_  a doctor and an amazing one at that, and now you're the only doctor this town has. And you're my wife, and that makes you even more awesome" Carl said, causing Enid to give a half smile. "No matter what happens, we will always love you. I will always love you. We will never blame you. This, all of this, isn't your fault. If she lives, if the baby lives, it's because of you. If she dies, it's because of them. Don't ever worry about disappointing me 'cuz it's not gonna happen."

Tears of relief ran down Enid's face. Carl told her exactly what she need to hear. That he wouldn't hate her if Michonne and the baby didn't make it. That was what she feared the most.

She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and took a breath. "Ok. I'll try my best" she said. Carl got up and pulled her to her feet, noticing for the first time the blood running down her leg.

"You're hurt" he said. Enid looked down at her thigh. "Yea, one of them slashed me".

"Sit" Carl commanded, pushing a chair behind Enid.

"I have to start the surgery…" Enid started.

"Not until you're taken care of" Carl said, cutting her off. "We don't know how long it will take and I'm not gonna have you bleeding to death while you're trying to save her."

Enid nodded and Carl took out a knife, cutting a slit all the way up Enid's jeans so that he could get to the thigh wound. Just then, Judy came in carrying the alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. "Thanks Judy" Carl said, taking the bottles from her and dabbing some peroxide onto Enid's leg.

"Judy, go into the bag that Tommy brought back and bring some bandages. They should be in the left front pocket" Enid said. Judy left to do what she asked. When Judy left, Carl bent down to kiss Enid. "During the surgery I'll stay in the bedroom with Judy, Joy and… Tommy is it? But if you need me for anything…  _anything_ … even if you just need a hug, I'll be there. Ok? I love you."

Enid nodded, and when Judy came back with the bandages Enid watched as Carl gently wrapped up her leg.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick looked down at his wife who was now awake again. Her beautiful brown eyes were staring into his, and as usual, they were talking without using words. The look that the two of them were giving each other was simple.

_I love you._

A single tear fell from Rick's eyes.

"Dr. Carson is dead" Michonne said simply.

Rick nodded his head.

Michonne closed her eyes. She knew what this meant for her, but her baby could have a chance.

"Rick… save the baby… it's easiest for Enid to just cut it out… don't worry about me."

"No. How can you say that?" Rick asked.

"Our baby…  _please_ … if it died because Enid was trying to save me…" tears started to pour out of Michonne's eyes. "I would die… on the inside"

Rick began to cry. "I'm not sacrificing you… I need you… the family needs  _you_ "

"Just… if it comes down to one of us… please pick the baby Rick"

Rick nodded his head and then tried to mentally prepare himself for what he was going to say next.

"Michonne… we don't have anesthesia."

She was quiet and her eyes looked up at the ceiling. She took two deep breaths and more tears began to fall from her eyes. "Ok" she said, her voice shaking.

Rick leaned over her as best he could, keeping his hands on her belly, as he kissed her lips gently. He could feel her trembling.

"It's ok" he whispered. "I know you're scared. It's ok. You don't have to be brave in front of me." His words penetrated her tough exterior and she began to sob uncontrollably. Rick nuzzled his cheek against hers as she cried, letting out all the pain and fear that she'd been holding on to since walkers were spotted outside of their trailer hours earlier.

"I know baby, I know" he said into her ear as she cried. "I'll be there with you the whole time. Just look in my eyes. I'll do whatever you need me to do."

She cried until her sobs turned into whimpers. He had never seen her this way, so vulnerable and helpless. He leaned back and looked into her eyes, seeing such sadness there. He kissed her forehead and cheeks.

"I… want… to see… my babies" she hiccupped out.

"Ok" he said, and she raised her hand to wipe her eyes.

Rick called the kids out one by one so Michonne could talk to them, and in the meantime Carl and Enid got to work preparing the kitchen to be an operating room.

Rick called Joy first and she came and kneeled next to Michonne. "Mommy?" Joy asked, seeing how upset Michonne was. Michonne reached up and ran her fingers through Joy's curly hair and looked into her blue eyes. "I love you Joyjoy…you know that right?"

Joy nodded her head. "I love you too Mommy". Michonne swallowed to hold back her tears. "You are so special to me. You make me so happy. Your middle name... Andrea.... you were named after two people who I loved so much. And I…" Michonne took a deep breath. "And you'll always give me joy. I know you were holding my hand a little while ago, and I'm so proud of you. And I know you'll grow up to be a strong, beautiful woman. You take care of your little brother or sister ok?"

Joy looked down at Michonne in confusion. "I will, but you'll be there to take care of him too, right Mommy?". Michonne let out a little laugh at Joy calling the baby a him.

"Yea" she said, but it wasn't very convincing.

"She will" Rick said. "Ok honey, tell Judy to come in here and then go back into Enid's room, you're gonna have to stay there a while".

"Ok daddy" Joy said, but she knew something serious was about to happen. She leaned down and kissed Michonne's forehead, and then went to find Judy.

Rick looked down at Michonne and saw her lip was trembling. He leaned over and kissed her cheek to give her strength.

Judy came in from the kitchen and kneeled down in front of them.

"Hi baby girl" Michonne said.

"Mommy, are you gonna be ok?" Judy asked.

Michonne looked up at the ceiling again to compose herself. "I don't know Judy. But no matter what I'll always be with you. I just wanted to thank you. You saved my life today. You were so smart to push down on me. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have made it this far. And I saw how you tried to take care of your sister. I'm so proud… so proud of you."

Judy began to cry. "Mommy, I don't want you to die. Please don't die"

Rick and Michonne both began to cry too. "I don't want to either. I'll try not to ok? I'll fight as long as I can. You know I'll fight. I love you so much Judy. My big girl."

Judy reached down and kissed Michonne's cheek and Michonne kissed Judy's. Unable to speak, Michonne nodded at Rick and he said "Ok, go to the room Judy, keep Joy company". Judy turned and left, and Michonne nodded at Tommy who was watching all of this from the living room.

Rick motioned for him to come over with his head, and Tommy seemed shocked that they wanted to talk to him, but he came over and knelt like Joy and Judy had done.

"Ome… Tommy. Thank you. You saved me and my girls at least three times today. You stopped Alpha from hurting me again, you stopped those others from turning, and you brought back that bag. Thank you so much… if you want to be, you're our son too. We love you, and you always have a home with us and our family."

Tommy's eyes got wide. He nodded quickly.

Rick smiled. He didn't know all the things that Tommy had done for his family. "Thank you" he said again, looking into Tommy's eyes.

A tear fell down Tommy's cheek and Michonne wiped it away. "Ok, go ahead into the room son" Rick said. Tommy smiled and then went to follow the girls.

Lydia watched the scene from the door where she had been standing watch since she entered the house. She was amazed and fascinated by these people. Although she was saddened by the fact that three of the people she'd formerly lived with were now lying dead in the living room, she was impressed that a pregnant woman, and the boy who was considered the weakest one in the group had taken them out. She witnessed how they had adopted Omega and cared for him, even though he wasn't their own, and how he cared for them too. She only hoped that they'd accept her the same way.

Rick called for Enid and Carl together. The two of them came out of the kitchen together, holding hands. Carl had tears falling down his face, and Enid was visibly upset. Michonne reached out to Carl and he took her hand.

"Remember when Negan took me, and I promised you I'd be ok?" Michonne asked.

Carl nodded.

"No matter what happens. I'll be okay. I know that you and your dad will take care of this family.  _You_  have been taking care of this family since you were a little boy. I am so proud of the man you've become. I love you always Carl, and I know you'll be such a great dad" she added, looking at Enid. "The both of you…" her voice broke and she took a moment to compose herself again. "The both of you will be great parents, because the love that you have for each other will make everything okay."

"I love you mom" Carl said.

She then turned to Enid. "Enid, I trust you with my life. I know you'll do the best you can for me and my baby. No matter what happens, it's not your fault. If you weren't here, my baby and I wouldn't even have a chance, so thank you. I love you Enid, you're my daughter and I love you". Enid burst into tears and bent down to kiss Michonne's forehead.

"I love you too… I'm so sorry for everything that's happened to you… I'll do my best, I promise".

To Lydia's shock, Carl called her over to join them. Lydia slowly walked over feeling completely awkward and out of place.

"Mom, Enid, this is who saved me from the Walker People. If it weren't for Lydia I wouldn't be here. She got me away from them and she helped me get back here."

Michonne smiled, and Enid got up and hugged Lydia. Lydia had not been hugged by anyone in years, and she was taken aback by the affection, but seeing the grateful smile on Enid's face put her at ease. "Thank you Lydia, for bringing back my husband" Enid said. "We owe you".

Michonne smiled at Lydia and whispered "thank you".

Lydia, feeling completely overwhelmed by the kindness simply nodded her head and backed away.

Enid knelt back down and then looked at Rick, her eyes asking him if he had told her the problem with the surgery yet. He nodded.

Michonne, reading both of their body language nodded. "I know…" she said.

"I'm sorry Michonne" Enid said. "I… I hope it'll be quick… before you pass out"

Michonne nodded.

"Ok, we have to move her to the kitchen table and it's gonna take all hands on deck. We need to do this carefully, we don't want to move the knife too much. Rick take her upper body, Carl take her legs, I'll keep pressure on her, and Lydia, you support her back". Lydia was surprised to be included once again, but she nodded and stepped forward.

Everyone got into position around Michonne and on a count of three they lifted her together. The sudden movement caused Michonne to cry out in pain, and the fluid started to leak once again. Enid tried to press down quickly to stop the flow, but it wasn't working without Michonne laying on a flat surface.

"Hurry!" Enid yelled, and they shuffled to move her to the table as quickly as possible. Once she was laying flat again, Rick applied pressure to the wound.

"Ok, Carl you have to go now. Everyone else needs to wash their hands."

Carl leaned down and kissed Michonne's forehead telling her "You'll be ok mom." He then reluctantly left the kitchen. Enid and Lydia washed their hands thoroughly in the sink, and then Lydia took Rick's place as Rick washed his hands. Enid pulled out gloves and masks for everyone, and then she put on a smock for herself. The surgical instruments had been boiled to kill any bacteria off of them, and a fresh towel was ready to wrap the baby in, as well as an aspirator to clear any fluid from the baby's mouth and nose.

When Enid had gone through the bag, she was shocked to see that Tommy had thrown in other useful devices that originally weren't inside. A resuscitation pump and mask would be useful if Michonne stopped breathing which was a real possibility, and he also threw in a portable defibrillator kit which had to be extremely heavy for him to carry. This kid was a genius.

Enid just had to focus. Once Michonne passed out she'd have to put a sheet over the top half of her body. It was too distracting to see her mother-in-law in front of her. She just had to focus on the safest way to get this baby out without killing Michonne. Enid poured alcohol onto Michonne's skin to sterilize it as much as possible, causing Michonne to shiver as the cool liquid quickly evaporated.

Enid took the stethoscope and finally checked on the baby's heart. She could hear Michonne's heart beat which was weaker than she'd like. Enid closed her eyes to listen carefully, trying to drown out Michonne's heart. Listening for another, weaker beat. Nothing. Enid moved the stethoscope to another position on Michonne's belly and waited. Nothing. Enid looked up at Rick who was watching her every move. She opened her mouth to tell him she didn't hear a heartbeat when she heard it. It was faint, but there was another heartbeat. A smile slid across her face and Rick released a sigh of relief. He looked down at Michonne who couldn't see Enid with her large belly in the way.

"The baby's alive" he said, smiling. Michonne let out a cry of relief. "Ok, if it's alive I can do this. I can do this" she said.

"Rick, Lydia, you're gonna have to hold her down" Enid said.

Lydia grabbed hold of Michonne's legs, and Rick held her upper body, turning himself to face her. "Just look into my eyes" he said. "You tell us when you're ready".

Michonne closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened them again and stared deeply into Rick's eyes. "Ok" she said.

Enid took the scalpel and cut deeply into Michonne's abdomen causing her to scream loudly and arch her body up off the table. Rick and Lydia quickly tried to hold her down and prevent her from moving as Michonne's leg muscles began to spasm from the pain. Enid, trying her best to ignore the mayhem around her kept cutting as Michonne closed her eyes and screamed louder.

"It's ok baby, it's ok" Rick tried to comfort her while resting his whole weight down on her to stop her from bucking off the table. Lydia was trying her best to hold Michonne's legs that were shaking wildly.

"Oh God, please pass out" Enid mumbled while trying to hold back tears, but she had to cut deeper.

Once Enid made the initial cut to open Michonne, she had to cut the uterus to get the baby out. As she stretched the incision to make it wider, Michonne let out one last scream and mercifully fainted.


	13. Chapter 13

Carl closed the bedroom door and looked at the three scared children in there with him. His emotions were all over the place. He thought he'd be able to handle being in the kitchen during the surgery, and he wanted to support his parents and his wife, but now, he was grateful Michonne had asked him not to be there. She knew him too well. His mind kept going back to Lori and how she bled out in front of him, and what he had to do to her after.

Joy watched her older brother as he stared off into space. Although she didn't fully understand what was going on, she knew that her mom was in trouble and her brother was concerned. She came over and held Carl's hand, startling him a little. When he looked down and saw her he smiled and lifted her up into his arms.

Suddenly a scream pierced the house, a cry of pure agony. It was Michonne. Carl turned towards the door and saw Judy sitting on the bed, her eyes wide in terror. "What are they doing to Mommy?" Joy cried, tears rolling down her face. "They're trying to get the baby out" Carl said, his voice shaking.

A louder scream caused Judy and Omega to run over to Carl, both of them wrapping their arms around his waist. Carl hugged his siblings as tears streamed down his face. "She'll be ok" he said, more to himself than anyone else, "She'll be ok".

There was a third scream followed by silence.

"Are they done? Is… is the baby out now?" Judy asked.

"I don't know" Carl said. He looked down at the three children who were holding on to him for dear life.

"I know you guys are scared. I'm scared too. But while we wait, let's play a game"

Three little heads popped up to look at Carl when he mentioned a game. Carl, still carrying Joy, sat down on the bed and reached underneath to pull out a board game. Candy Land.

Judy clapped her hands together. "I love this game!"

"C'mon Judy" Carl said, "lets teach Joy and Tommy how to play."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick had tears streaming down his face and he was shaking from adrenaline and terror as he watched his wife go unconscious. Lydia was also shaking. Enid had tears running down her face too, but she was focused in on her mission. Get the baby out, save Michonne.

"Rick, put a sheet over Michonne" Enid commanded. Rick went to grab a sheet, and draped it over the top half of her body. "Ok, I need you to watch her closely. If she stops breathing or she starts changing colors, or if she starts waking up, you need to tell me. Can you do that?"

"Y-yeah" Rick stuttered, moving over to where Michonne's head was and gently stroking her face.

Enid had used some instruments to hold the incision open, and was now cutting into the uterus to get the baby. Lydia looked on almost mystified as Enid reached inside and could feel the baby.

"I'm there" she said, "I can feel the head. The baby is head down, so maybe it didn't get too injured by the knife".

Rick sighed with relief.

"Lydia, I need you to hold the flashlight up so I can see better".

Lydia held the flashlight up over Enid's head and shined it into the incision. Enid reached in and maneuvered the baby's head so that she could pull it from its mother. She then yanked the tiny baby out, followed by a gush of water.

Rick stood up so he could see what was going on on the other side of the sheet. He could tell Enid was pulling on something because Michonne's body was rocking back and forth. Suddenly he saw a tiny body in her hands. His mouth dropped open and he froze in horror. The baby was small. So small. The room was silent as Enid turned the baby in her hands to gently tap it's back. It wasn't breathing.

"Pass the aspirator and the towel" Enid ordered Lydia, and Lydia ran to get it. Enid stuck the aspirator into the baby's tiny mouth and she could hear liquid being sucked out. She then tried the nose which also had liquid. She then continued tapping on the baby's back. Nothing.

Tears slid down Rick's face as he watched the scene, terrified.

Enid startled both Rick and Lydia when she leaned down and placed her mouth over the baby's mouth and breathed into its lungs. Its tiny chest filled with air. Enid then took a finger and pushed down on the baby's chest. She alternated breathing and pushing for a few seconds and Rick watched in wonder as the baby gave a tiny cough.

Enid smiled and looked up at Rick. The baby's cough led to a tiny cry as it made its noisy entrance into the world. "It's a little boy" Enid said, smiling for a moment.

Enid quickly checked over the baby and her face fell. "There's a gash on his thigh. It must've been from the knife. This cut needs stitches."

Rick was so scared he couldn't speak. Stitches on a baby this small? "Will… will the baby be ok? I mean stitches, is there a risk?"

Enid looked overwhelmed. "I can do the stitches now and close the wound, but Michonne is laying open on this table and she's losing blood. And the longer she's open the more risk of infection. I can't do both at once."

Enid was looking at Rick, waiting for him to make the decision.  _Who do I work on first?_

Rick feared a decision like this would come. He looked down at Michonne's still body and kissed her forehead. He knew what she'd say.

_If it comes down to one of us… please pick the baby Rick._

"Stitch the baby" Rick said.

Enid cut the umbilical cord with the scissors that Carl had sterilized, and then carried the tiny infant to a kitchen counter that had been cleaned, and laid it on a towel. She got out her suture kit and immediately began to close the wound, the little baby crying the whole time.

"Lydia, can you keep an eye on Michonne?" Rick asked, as he made his way over to the counter to his crying son.

The boy's leg was so tiny Rick didn't know how Enid could even see well enough to stitch him, but she was getting it done as quickly as she could.

"It's ok" Rick whispered, leaning over the baby. "It's ok. Daddy's here. I know it hurts son, but just for a little while. Just for a little while ok?" Rick stroked the baby's head of bushy brown hair, and looked into his big brown eyes. He looked just like Michonne. A tear ran down Rick's face as he looked into his son's eyes.

"Oh your mommy will be so happy to see you when she wakes up. It's almost over. Almost over." Rick cooed to him, as Enid finished the stitches. "Ok" Enid said. "I'm gonna have to give him a full check-up when I'm done with Michonne, but for now you can take him".

Rick wrapped the baby up in another clean towel, and carried him out of the kitchen to the bedroom where his children were.

When Rick opened the door, everyone froze. Carl could see he was carrying a towel, and then he realized there was something inside. Carl stared at Rick's face, begging for confirmation that Michonne was still alive.

"She's alive" Rick said, specifically to Carl. "She's still in surgery, I have to go back in, but I just wanted to show him to you"

"Him?" Judy squealed, "I knew it!"

"Me too!" Joy chimed in.

Rick passed the tiny baby to Carl and then turned to the children. "He's very fragile, and we don't want to get him sick, so keep your distance. But this is your baby brother."

Carl moved the towel over to reveal the tiny baby. "He's so small" Carl said in amazement.

"Yea, but he's alive, and that's what's important. I gotta get back to Michonne." Rick said

"I'll keep him safe dad" Carl said, and Rick smiled. As Rick closed the bedroom door he saw all the children crowding around to get a glimpse of the newest member of the Grimes family.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Rick got back to the kitchen he was immediately alarmed by the amount of blood coming out of the C-section wound.

"What's going on?" he asked in a panic.

"I'm trying to control the bleeding, she's losing a lot of blood and I haven't even gotten to the knife wound yet."

Lydia was helping Enid stuff gauze into the hole to soak up some of the blood so Enid could find out where the blood was coming from. Rick moved to Michonne's head and immediately noticed her skin had changed color. "She looks pale" Rick said.

As Enid worked, she said to Rick "check under her eyelids, what color are they?"

Rick pulled up one of Michonne's eyelids. "They're white! What does that mean?"

"Shit!" Enid yelled. "It means she's losing too much blood, and I don't have blood to give her".

"She has the same blood type as me and Carl, I asked her just in case, when Joy was born. If you have the means, I can give her some right now".

Enid looked up. "We have some tubing in the infirmary. If I get the tubing I can figure it out…"

"I can get it" Lydia said, "let me do it. Just tell me where the infirmary is"

While Lydia left to make another trip to the infirmary, Rick helped Enid find where the blood was coming from. She patched up the bleeder and finally closed the wound in Michonne's abdomen. Enid then went to check Michonne's vitals. She pressed the stethoscope against Michonne's chest to listen to her heart. Rick stared with a look of desperation on his face.

"Her heart rate is very fast, she was in shock from before, but it's getting worse"

Rick rolled up his sleeves. "I'm ready, and Carl will give too. Tell me what I need to do"

"For now, we need to wait. I'm not gonna start on the knife wound until Lydia gets back"

Enid looked exhausted. Rick quickly got one of the dining chairs and brought it back for Enid to sit. Enid nodded at him thankfully and sat down with a sigh. She was covered in Michonne's blood and he knew her feet had to be hurting.

While Enid rested, Rick moved back over to Michonne. He leaned down and whispered in her ear "You're doing great honey, just hang in there. We have a baby boy Michonne, and he's so beautiful. He looks just like you. You gotta stick with us to see him. He needs his mama. I need you too." He stroked her hair and spoke to her until Lydia came back carrying the supplies.

"The infirmary is full of walking ones" she panted, out of breath. "I had to fight my way through the walking ones to get this. And my people seem to have left. I guess they noticed Alpha, Beta, and Gamma disappeared..."

She dropped the tubing on the counter and Enid got up to put the tubing together for the transfusion.

"Thank you Lydia. For risking your life. For everything." Rick said.

Lydia nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Ok. I'm ready." Enid called.

She attached a needle to both ends of the tubing. One side would go into Michonne's arm, the other into Rick's.

"I have never done this before. I figure, with the rate that the blood goes through, if you're attached to her for 8 minutes that should be about a pint. If you start getting dizzy or light headed let me know immediately. I don't have much of a system to determine how much blood you're losing, I'm just winging this." Rick nodded his head and stuck out his arm.

Enid leaned over to rub alcohol on Rick's arm before she inserted the needle when Michonne's body suddenly jerked on the table. She started making grunting noises, thrashing around, and shaking. Rick leaped out the chair and went to hold her still so she didn't fall off the table and hurt herself. Rick could see her eyes rolled up in her head.

"It's a seizure! Shit!" Enid yelled as Lydia held on to Michonne's legs. "Just let her go through it" Enid instructed, "just keep her on the table". The seizure lasted a minute and finally her muscles relaxed again. Rick's eyes were wide open and he shook in terror.

"Is she… is she ok? ..." He stammered. Enid checked Michonne's heart rate again.

"She needs the transfusion now. C'mon Rick."

Rick stuck his arm out again and Enid attached the two of them. Rick watched as the blood flowed out of his arm and into Michonne's. While they waited, he held her hand and rested his head against her shoulder.

"Lydia… can you… can you get Carl?" Rick asked. She nodded and left the room. In a few seconds she came back with Carl. Carl stood in the doorway looking terrified.

"What is it?" he asked, on the verge of tears. "Did she…"

"No, she's still alive Carl" Rick said. "She needs a transfusion. I'm giving her blood now but she'll need more."

"Yea ok, I'll do anything" he said, rolling up his sleeve. He glanced over at Enid and took in the sheer amount of blood covering her smock.

"Enid…" he started.

"I'm ok" she cut him off. "I'm ok… we're just waiting for the transfusions and then I'll start on the knife".

He knew she didn't want to talk now, and he didn't want her to lose her focus, so he didn't say anything more. After Rick gave a pint, Carl sat down and gave another pint. Enid periodically checked Michonne's eyelids.

"It's working" she said, "her eyelids are definitely turning pink, and her heart rate has slowed down a little. I think we're ready to get this knife out of her."

"How's the baby doing?" Rick asked Carl, as Enid prepared Michonne for the next part of the surgery.

"He's breathing ok and he turned pinker. Judy is holding him right now so I'd better get back, but he looks so much like Michonne." Carl said with a smile.

"Yea, I know" Rick said, patting Carl on the back and then turning to go back to his spot beside Michonne's head as Carl left the room again.

"Ok" Enid said, taking a breath "Here we go. Lydia, flashlight please."

Lydia shined the flashlight on the knife as Enid checked out the wound. "It seems pretty deep, but I don't think it's in an area with any major arteries which is why she didn't bleed to death. I'm just gonna pull on it and see what happens." Enid said simply.

Enid pulled on the knife and it slowly moved from Michonne's body. Michonne let out a low groan and Enid froze. "Is she waking up?" she asked Rick. Rick looked down at his wife. She wasn't moving and seemed to still be unconscious.

"No, I don't think so" Rick said, "just hurry if you can."

Enid checked the wound now that the knife was out. There was blood coming out of the wound, but Enid quickly stopped the bleeding. Her major concern was infection. She washed the wound out with simple antiseptic, and using tubing, she left a drain for fluids to run out of the wound. She then partially stitched it.

When she was done she let out a loud sigh. "Ok. I… I think I'm done…" she said, taking off her smock, and removing her mask and gloves. As soon as she removed it she burst into tears. Rick quickly removed his mask and gloves and wrapped his arms around Enid.

"Thank you" he said, also crying. "Thank you so much Enid. You were great. You saved their lives."

Enid squeezed Rick tightly. "Go on, go to Carl. I know you need to" he whispered. She nodded and left the room.

"And thank you again Lydia" Rick said. Lydia nodded and also left the room.

Rick pulled the chair up to the table again and sat next to his unconscious wife. "You're done Michonne. You made it. I know you're a fighter and you fought. All I need is for you to wake up when you're ready. Your babies are waiting for you", he kissed her lips, "and so am I".


	14. Chapter 14

Enid left the kitchen completely overwhelmed by what had just happened. She'd done what she thought was impossible. She saved the baby  _and_  Michonne. She had done a C-section, stopped a massive amount of bleeding, completed two blood transfusions, and removed the knife. It was like every medical procedure that she had read about and watched Winston and Dr. Carson complete had come back to her in that moment, guiding her. She was exhausted, but she knew she still had work to do. The baby boy had to be checked on, and Michonne had to be monitored.

She opened her bedroom door to find Carl sitting on the floor with his sisters and Tommy, holding the baby in one arm while playing Candy Land with the other. He looked so natural, surrounded by children, that she smiled and paused to observe the view, unconsciously putting her hand on her own belly.

_Soon he'll be holding our baby like that... But what if I go into labor early? What if there's something wrong? What if I have to have a C-section too? There's no doctor here. Dr. Carson is dead. There's no one to help me._

Enid broke down, sobbing as she leaned against the bedroom doorway. Her cries startled the gamers, and their heads snapped up to see the source of the noise. Carl quickly passed the baby to Judy and jumped up to wrap his arms around his wife.

"Enid? Enid! What happened? Are you ok?" he asked, holding her close so that her sobs fell into his chest. She didn't immediately answer, striking up that uncontrollable fear in Carl that he'd lost his mother again. He pulled back from Enid, trying to look into her eyes.

Enid, knowing that he wanted confirmation that Michonne wasn't dead, nodded. "She's ok… I saved her… I think I saved her". Enid's eyes were glancing everywhere but his, and Carl knew something was really bothering her.

Carl cupped both of Enid's cheeks with his hands and kissed her gently. "What is it?" he asked.

"Dr. Carson is dead… we don't have anyone for  _our_  baby… what if I need someone? What if I need surgery?"

Carl knew she was overwhelmed by everything that happened that night. In the span of a few hours she had been attacked by Walker People, and had almost lost her husband and family members too. Plus, she had lost her mentor who had taught her almost everything she knew about medicine. She and Dr. Carson had been close and his death was hard on her.

"I know Enid, I know you're scared now. But how about this, when you're getting closer to delivery we'll move back to Alexandria so Winston can take care of you. Ok? You'll be fine, our baby will be fine. And you just freakin' saved my mom and my brother. You're a rockstar Enid. I'm so proud of you baby."

Enid pulled her head away from Carl's chest, looked up at him and smiled. He leaned down and gave her a peck on the lips. "You need to rest now. You've been on your feet for hours."

"No. I have to give the baby a check-up. I need to make sure he's ok" Enid said tiredly, but Carl knew she wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Ok. But promise me when you're done doing what you're doing you'll lay down for a few hours."

Enid shrugged. "I'll try".

She took the sleeping baby from Judy and brought him back into the kitchen to check him out, Carl right behind her. Michonne was still lying on the table, now completely covered with the sheet to keep her warm. Rick was sitting on a dining room chair that was placed by the table, but had fallen asleep, resting his head on her shoulder. Carl, not wanting to wake him, moved over to Michonne and looked down at her. She looked pale, but she was breathing, and that was something. Carl smoothed her locs back and kissed her cheek. "Keep fighting mom" he whispered.

Carl then went over to Enid as she lay his little brother on the counter. "Enid, I have to go out there and see what's happening. I need to rally up everyone to get rid of the Walkers that are left, I need to find out who else we've lost, and I have to find Gregory. He's gonna pay for everything that he's done."

Enid sighed. She knew that Carl had to go back out there, she was just worried. Carl still didn't know that she was slashed in the thigh because Gregory had abandoned her, and she decided not to add insult to injury. Carl already had enough justification to kill that sad excuse for a man, he didn't need more. "Ok, be safe" she said as they kissed, and then Carl was gone.

Enid unwrapped the tiny baby boy from the towel. His body had gotten pinker which was a good sign that he was breathing well. When she moved the towel from his body and exposed him to the cooler air in the kitchen he began to cry and angrily flail his arms and legs. She noted that he was moving the leg with the stitches fairly well.

"So you're a little fighter too, huh?" she cooed to the baby. She took her stethoscope and listened to his tiny heart. His heartbeat was steady, but she could hear a small heart murmur which was to be expected from a preemie. Hopefully it would close up on its own. She rubbed her finger against his palm and he quickly squeezed his hand closed, gripping her finger. "Wow, and you have a strong grip too, just like your mama."

The baby's crying woke Rick, and he quickly went to join Enid. "Is he looking ok?" Rick asked.

"Yep, for now. But he's not out of danger in the least. He has to be monitored to make sure he's breathing normally. His lungs aren't fully developed yet and he could stop…" Enid glanced at Rick's face and saw tears welling up in his eyes.

"It's ok Rick, he's survived so much already. He's hanging in there. Hey, why don't you help me test him?" Enid asked, trying to get Rick thinking about something positive.

Rick nodded. "What do I do?"

"Move behind his head where he can't see you. We're gonna test his hearing. Ok, now clap." Enid ordered. Rick clapped his hands once and the baby's hands moved outwards in a startle reflex. "Ok, good. He heard that."

Rick smiled and bent down to kiss his son's forehead. "Sorry buddy".

Enid wrapped the boy up again. "I have a few more tests, but what's most important right now is that he eats and is warm. We don't have formula here, but we do have cow's milk. It's not the best for him, but it may be the only alternative for a while if we can't get him to latch on to Michonne, or she isn't producing milk yet. But we can try."

"She can feed him? Even if she's not awake?" Rick asked.

"Yes, if he can latch on. We'll have to help him, and be careful not to irritate Michonne's wounds."

Rick nodded his head. He'd do anything if it meant his son got what he needed.

Rick carried the baby over to Michonne and gently pulled down the sheet that was covering her. Enid quickly checked Michonne's heartbeat and was pleased to hear it was returning to normal.

"Ok, lay him on her chest" Enid ordered "make sure he isn't on a bandage".

Rick lay the baby on Michonne's chest and he laid the towel on top of the boy so he would stay warm.

"Now what?" Rick asked, "Do we have to put the nipple in his mouth?"

"Just wait" Enid said.

Rick didn't know what they were waiting for. His son was hungry and it seemed pretty cruel putting him so close to his food source but not helping him get it. He was about to tell Enid that, when he noticed his son slowly rolling and pushing himself up Michonne's body. Rick was amazed. Slowly but surely, the baby was actually crawling closer to a nipple.

"I… I've never seen this before!" Rick said. "How is he crawling?"

"It's called the breast crawl. Babies can smell the milk and they instinctively will crawl to it and latch on. I read about it in one of the pregnancy books I've been reading, but I've never seen it before either."

Rick was mesmerized. The boy finally made it to the nipple. It took more than a few tries, but eventually he found one and to everyone's delight he latched on and began to suckle. Rick, who was an emotional mess already, cried for the billionth time that night, and gently rubbed the baby's back as he ate.

"Ok, just watch him. When he's finished eating he'll definitely fall asleep right there. He'll have a hard time controlling his body temperature, but letting him sleep against Michonne's chest will keep him warm. Or he can sleep against yours if you think he'll fall off of her."

Rick nodded. "Go get some rest Enid, you've more than earned it. I'll keep an eye on them. Tell the kids to come in here so you can get some sleep."

Enid sleepily made her way out of the kitchen and noticed Lydia dragging the forgotten Walker People bodies out of the front door. Enid was grateful that the dead people were out of her living room, but now that her adrenaline rush was running low, she realized how exhausted she really was. She entered her room and sent the kids to the kitchen with Rick. She shut off the lights and before she realized she was in the bed she was asleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Carl walked out of his home onto the dark streets of the Hilltop. It was early morning and the sky was a dark blue. The sun would be rising in a little while. The air smelled rank with the smell of decomposing corpses. The streets were littered with walkers and humans alike, and the view was disturbing. It reminded him of how his father described Alexandria after their attack from a huge Walker herd. Carl had never seen the aftermath, because he'd been shot in the eye and was unconscious during the clean-up effort. Carl didn't see a single moving thing in the streets. He made his way to the front gates, hoping he'd see some of the Hilltop defense team, but he couldn't find anyone. It was like a ghost town.

His next stop was to check the big house, the last place where he saw members of the defense team gathered. As he walked towards the big house, he had an overwhelming urge to check Gregory's house first, just to see if that snake had actually gone home.

Carl turned and headed over to Gregory's house. If the man had any sense he'd had left the community already with plans to never come back, but Carl had the smallest of hunches he would find Gregory there. As he snuck up to the front porch and looked through the window he could see a light on in what looked to be the kitchen. The rest of the lights were off. Carl quietly tried the front door but it was locked. He snuck around the house and stood under the kitchen window. He heard at least three voices talking and he strained to hear what was being said but could only catch pieces of the conversation.

"Hurry..."

"...Enough food?"

"Doesn't matter, ...go while no one is outside"

"Where?"

"...think of something..."

"...weapons..."

"No time. The Grimes' will come looking for me."

It was Gregory, and he recognized the voices of Timothy, and probably that other man who had helped drag Carl to the Walker People camp.

Carl could only see red. A rage boiled up inside him unlike anything he had ever felt before. Even worse than what he felt after those Claimers had tried to rape him on the side of the road, or when Negan had slaughtered Abraham in front of them. He wanted all three of them dead for what they had done.

Subtleness gone, Carl smashed the kitchen window with his gun, causing shards of glass to fly everywhere. He barely registered he had cut himself, but he didn't care. He climbed through the window, startling the three men.

"Carl?!" Gregory gasped, his eyes wide and terrified, but Carl wasn't in a chatting mood. He pulled his knife and drove it through the third man's chest. Timothy turned to run and Carl threw his knife, hitting a bullseye in Timothy's back. Timothy screamed and collapsed to the floor but he wasn't dead. Carl aimed his gun at Gregory's face and approached him.

"Please Carl. Please. I was just trying to do what I thought was best for hilltop. That's all... Are you gonna murder me? You know how that'd make you look?"

"Like you?" Carl asked, "Because of you people are dead. Because of you those Walker People got in here. They tried to kill my mom and they almost killed her baby! They tried to kill my pregnant wife! You have the blood of dozens on your hands. You are a fucking coward!"

"Carl just... just calm down..." Gregory started. His words made Carl snap, and he pulled the trigger, blasting a hole through Gregory's head.

Timothy had been trying to quietly crawl out of the kitchen unnoticed, but Carl quickly caught up to him and ended him with a knife through the head. As Carl looked down at the three bodies, he felt justice had been served. It was because of these men that the walker people could even get into hilltop, and so many lives had been lost as a result.

Carl left the scene and continued on to the big house to find the rest of the defense team.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Lydia grunted as she dragged the heavy bodies of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma into the quiet street. Other bodies lay outside too, as if they had been put on the curb for trash pick up. She dropped the bodies of her leaders on the ground with a plop.

They had found her while she was living with her father and two older brothers in the back of an old tractor trailer. Her family had lived in the cramped quarters for months, eating and sleeping inside at night, and venturing out to scavenge for food or go fishing during the day.

When she first met Alpha, Lydia was fishing with her brothers while her father had gone a few miles down the road to check out an abandoned gas station.

Alpha and a few other masked people had come out of nowhere, quickly slaughtering her brothers as Lydia stood there stunned and horrified.

Lydia had never seen anything like the crazy people who looked like walkers and killed as savagely. As she stood before Alpha, shaking, she gave Lydia a choice. "You can die with them or you can be strong with us". Lydia stared at these skin wearing people for a while, too frozen in fear to speak or move a muscle.

"Well, girl?" another one asked.

Lydia opened her mouth, unsure of what she was going to say, when a rustle from the bushes startled them all.

"Lydia, boys, did you catch anyth…" her father began, when a spear flew through the air and pierced his stomach.

"Dad!" Lydia screamed, suddenly able to move again, and she raced over to him as he gasped in pain, completely bewildered about what was happening. Lydia pulled a knife and held it towards the skin wearers as she crouched over her father.

"She's useless" one of them said, "end her"

"No! Wait. She may be strong yet" Alpha said. Alpha approached Lydia and Lydia stood up as tall as she could, ready for an attack. She knew this woman could kill her in a second, but something came over Lydia. She wouldn't let her father die at this woman's hands. She wouldn't allow that to happen.

"He is dead" Alpha said, looking over at Lydia's father who was gasping for breath, his eyes wide. It was obvious that he was bleeding out. "And when  _you_  realize that he's dead, we will be gone and you will be alone. You may end him, and prove that you are strong enough to join us, or we will leave you here alone, and you will die like the rest."

Lydia looked down at her father whose eyes were now closed. He was taking his last breaths. She kneeled down and whispered in his ear "I love you dad. Thanks for protecting us for so long. I'm gonna let you go join Lynel and Louis now. You guys wait for me, ok? I'll be ok here… I'll survive. I promise." Her father didn't respond, but his breathing was getting slower and slower, and blood was virtually pouring out of him. Lydia kissed his cheek, held up her knife, closed her eyes, and stabbed her father in the head. Unable to continue to look at him, she picked up his book bag, and turned towards his murderers.

"Yes, I think you'll do just fine" Alpha said, "I will call you Sigma."

Thinking back on that moment, Lydia realized that she had no choice. She had to do what needed to be done to survive. She had lived with those people for over a year, but she had never considered them family. They were just necessary for her survival, that was it. And now they were no longer necessary. Now she was in a town, with people who didn't live in the woods like animals, and fight each other for dominance. She was with a family that had true love for each other again. Maybe she could fit in with them, but even if she couldn't, she would be fine living in one of the houses by herself. She just didn't want to be alone in the world.

She looked down at Alpha and said, "I don't need you anymore. I'm not alone." She then turned her back on the corpses and sat down on the porch of the trailer, keeping watch for the people who welcomed her into their home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Carl entered the big house, words escaped him. There were bodies everywhere, blood was on the walls, and he noticed a path of bodies leading up the stairs. It looked like a massacre. In the midst of the carnage, 5 defense team members were arguing.

"We need to patrol and see if there are any more Walkers in the gates!"

"I'm not going back out there. It looks like everyone is dead. We're better off conserving our bullets and hitting the road. We can get to Alexandria or the Kingdom by foot in a day or two."

"Are you kidding me? We need to follow those Walker People. They escaped out the tunnel again. They know how to get in and they'll keep coming until we're all dead."

"We're already dead! Did you look outside?"

"Carl wouldn't want us to…"

"Carl is fucking dead!"

"Hey!" Carl said, interrupting the conversation.

All five heads turned to look at him.

"You're back?"

"Where the fuck were you? We thought you were dead!"

"Yea, I escaped from them. I had help. We need to kill the remaining Walkers and check on everyone in the houses and trailers. Where's the rest of the team?" Carl asked.

"This  _is_  the team dude, everyone is dead. The whole fucking town is dead." Benny said.

"They're not. There has to be people alive and we're going to help them. Let's go." Carl said.

"Where were you this whole time?! We needed you. When did you get back? 'cuz we saw your dad, but  _you_  were nowhere to be found. We didn't know what to do. You were supposed to lead us and you were gone!" Iona said, raising her voice at Carl.

Carl felt rage rearing its ugly head in him again. "You think I don't know that?" he yelled, "I wish I was here, but I got drugged by Gregory and kidnapped and dumped with the enemy! I found my way back as fast as I could. I tried to get back here. And once I did…" Carl felt tears welling up in his eyes and he took a moment to suppress them. "The Walker People tried to kill my pregnant mother, and my siblings, and the little boy who was terrified of them. They broke into my house and stabbed her in the stomach!" Carl yelled, and the others gasped. "My wife had to do a C-section on her with no medicine, no anesthesia, nothing! My mom and my brother almost died tonight. They still might. My whole family almost died tonight. My family needed me, and I was there for them, and I won't apologize for that. But I'm not with them right now. I'm with you. Trying to save  _our_  town. So let's go and save some more families before we really are all that's left."

The team nodded and the five of them followed Carl outside as the sun rapidly lit up the sky.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For two hours, Carl and the remaining members of the team wandered the streets of Hilltop looking for stray Walkers. They occasionally came across the bodies of members of Hilltop's defense team, who had bravely gone outside to stop the attack. Once these members were found, Carl would quickly stab them in the head and then they'd have a quick 30 seconds of silence before they moved on. Once they were sure that there were no more Walkers outside, they began checking the houses, looking for hurt or injured residents. Some people had barricaded their doors and the Walker People couldn't bust their way in, sparing the people inside. Others weren't so lucky and had been slaughtered. The team quickly put a knife through these people's heads, or put down their corpses.

As they walked through the streets, some residents who had been afraid to come out of their homes before, came out and also started checking on friends and neighbors. As Carl and his team were walking towards the infirmary which he knew was the site of a massacre, he was approached by two people, a man and a woman, who he recognized as Gregory's followers. Carl took a deep breath. He knew this wouldn't be pretty.

"Where's Gregory?" the man demanded, scowling at Carl.

Carl continued walking, ignoring the man.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" the man shouted.

Carl spun around. "Why don't you try checking his house?"

The man advanced on Carl. "I did already, and I found him dead, shot in the head. Timothy and Maxwell were dead too. Slaughtered!"

"That's a real shame" Carl said, turning back around to continue towards the infirmary.

"You walk around here like you're some kind of God! Like you're better than the rest of us! Like you can do whatever you want just 'cuz your daddy runs Alexandria. You're under the law just like the rest of us. You can't go around killing people. I know it was you Carl, the Walker People didn't carry any guns. You killed Gregory didn't you? Didn't you?" the man screamed at Carl.

Carl stopped walking and slowly turned around. He walked back over to the man with a calmness that was almost scary. The man and his female companion took a step back.

"Yes. Yes, I did." Carl said. The members of the defense team and the two Gregory followers all gasped. It was uncomfortably silent as they stared at Carl, no one knowing quite what to do.

Suddenly the woman looked at the members of the defense team and yelled "Arrest him! He's a murderer. Arrest him right now!"


	15. Chapter 15

"Arrest him! He's a murderer. Arrest him right now!" the woman yelled at the Hilltop defense team, but they just stood there and stared.

"That kid just confessed to murdering Gregory!" the man said, getting in one of their faces, "Now if we don't have justice around here, the whole society falls apart. You tellin' me its ok to go around killing folks now?"

Carl stood there staring at the man and woman. One of the defense team members said "We don't have a jail."

"So that makes it all ok?" the woman screamed. "We just let Carl go free because there's no jail?"

There was silence for a few moments. "If you're not arresting me right now, I'm gonna finish doing my  _job_ , which is to make sure everyone is ok. If you want to be helpful, you'd help do that too." Carl said, and he turned around and continued walking to the infirmary.

Gregory's followers looked on in shock. "Look, after things get settled, we'll handle this. But right now, we need all hands on deck" Benny said to the Gregory followers with a shrug, and the five defense team members followed Carl to the infirmary.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick stayed up all night, watching Michonne sleep with his son curled up on her chest. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He almost could forget that she wasn't just sleeping, she was unconscious, and the baby was defying all odds just by breathing.

_We need to name him._

Rick was no good with baby names. Lori had named Carl, and Carl had named Judith. Michonne had named Joy. He had never named any of his children. He didn't know where to start. He wanted to wait for her to wake up, but if the unthinkable happened, if the baby died, he wanted his son to have a name first.

Rick looked around the kitchen. The children had asked to sleep in there, and Rick suspected it was to be closer to Michonne, as well as because they felt safer sleeping in there with their parents. He had made beds for them out of towels and blankets after thoroughly mopping the floor which had puddles of Michonne's blood.

He looked back at his beautiful son. His miracle baby. His little warrior.

Michonne had told him once that her family was from Zimbabwe and she spoke the Shona language. She had taught him some words here and there, but one word stuck out. Mhare. It meant warrior. Michonne would call him that sometimes to tease him, but this baby really was a warrior. He was born with his battle scars. He had survived so much in his few hours of being born. He was a Mhare.

Rick wrapped the towel around the baby and slowly lifted him, pressing him against his own chest. "Your name is Mhare" he said kissing the baby's little cheek, "I hope your mama likes it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took hours for Carl and the team to clear every house and prevent every corpse from reanimating. The job was horrifying, and the sheer number of bodies was depressing. The worst part was having to put down the three children who had been killed. Staring into their empty eyes as they reached for him. Carl was physically and mentally exhausted, and he was at his breaking point. He hadn't slept more than two hours in two days and it was taking a toll. He had a headache and his eye was blurry from straining it for too long.

"Hey man" one of the team members said, "You ok?"

"Yea" Carl lied.

"We're gonna have to talk about what happened back there. About what happened to Gregory."

"So talk" Carl said.

"We're going to have to have a trial" another one said.

Carl didn't answer. He rubbed his eye in frustration and exhaustion.

"Look, have whatever you want. You know I'm not a flight risk, and like you said we don't have a jail, so I'll be in my home, with my family. You know where to find me if you need me."

And with that, Carl walked home.

Carl was too through. Gregory deserved what he got and more, and he'd say that in front of any jury. He wasn't sorry for what he did, and he'd do it again, happily. He would accept the consequences of his actions, but he'd never regret them.

As he walked up to his trailer he noticed Lydia curled up on the front porch, sleeping. As he approached, her eyes popped open and he noticed her hand on her knife. "Hey, it's just me" Carl said. She sat up and looked at him.

"You don't have to sleep out here, you can sleep on the couch in the living room."

"I haven't slept in a house in years. It will take me some time to get used to it. I'm ok out here" she said. Carl nodded, remembering how strange it was for him when he came to Alexandria. It took a while to get used to things like running water, refrigerators, and beds.

"I just want to thank you again Lydia, for all of your help. You went above and beyond the deal that we made. You saved me, you helped me get back in the gates, you helped saved my mom and brother's life. I know you might feel like you don't have anyone here, but you're one of us too. You're family."

Lydia smiled for the first time since Carl knew her, and he realized she had a beautiful smile.

"Thank you" she said.

Carl patted her shoulder. "I'm gonna go inside, just know, when you're ready, you can too."

Lydia nodded her head, and as Carl made his way into the house, she leaned back against the wall and smiled again.

Carl opened his front door. Not seeing anyone in the living room he made his way to the kitchen where he took in the beautiful scene of his family. Judy, Joy and Tommy sleeping on pillows and blankets like a sleepover, while Rick paced up and down rocking his little brother. Michonne was still unconscious on the table, but her color looked much better than it had when he'd left, and he hoped she'd wake up soon.

"Dad?" Carl whispered, not wanting to wake anyone up.

Rick turned around quickly and took in Carl's face. He immediately knew something was wrong. He walked to Carl and met him in the hallway.

"What happened?" Rick asked.

"I… I killed Gregory" Carl said. Rick searched Carl's face, trying to read him. Carl had killed people before, it had always been to protect his family, but Rick couldn't understand the expression that Carl was making. Regret? Anger? Fear?

"It's ok" Rick said.  _If you didn't do it, I would have._

"People know. His followers. They want me arrested." Carl said. "They want to have a trial."

Rick knew that was what Carl was worried about. How a trial might affect Enid and the rest of the family.

"It's ok Carl" Rick said. "It'll be ok, once we explain everything that happened, it'll be fine. I don't want you to worry about it. Just go get some rest, Enid is in your room sleeping too."

Carl nodded. "He deserved much worse. He was lucky" he said, and he turned and walked into his bedroom. It was dark inside due to the curtains being pulled, but he could make out Enid's outline, fast asleep.

Carl quickly stripped off his dirty clothes and crawled into bed next to his wife in his boxers, wrapping his arms around her body, his hands resting on her belly. Enid shifted in her sleep and mumbled "welcome home".

Carl smiled and pressed a kiss against her ear.

"How is it out there?" Enid asked, her eyes still closed.

"Let's talk about that later" Carl answered. "For now, let's go to sleep."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne had laid unconscious since 10 pm the night before. It was now 8 a.m and Rick was very concerned. He wanted to wake up Enid and ask her to check her, but he knew Enid needed her rest, so Rick would periodically check her eyelids and her pulse. She seemed to be fine to Rick's untrained eyes, but she needed to drink and eat, and she couldn't do that while unconscious.

Rick also noticed a sheen of sweat starting to form on her skin, and as much as he hated to think about it, he knew what that meant. She was getting a fever. An infection was brewing.

Just when he was about to knock on the bedroom door, Enid came out.

Seeing the worried look on Rick's face, Enid asked "How's she doing?"

"I think she has a fever"

Enid quickly walked to Michonne and put a hand on her forehead.

"Yea, she's a little warm"

Enid asked the kids who were sitting on the kitchen floor eating waffles that Rick had made for them to move into the living room. Once they were gone she moved the sheet covering Michonne so she could inspect the wounds. The C-section scar was closed nicely, and although it was still bleeding a little, it looked healthy.

Enid then checked the knife wound. The area around it was red and inflamed, and a small amount of pus was leaking from the drain that Enid had put in.

"Dammit" Enid sighed. "That stupid knife."

"So what do we do?" Rick asked.

"We do have stronger antibiotics in the infirmary, but…" Enid trailed off.

"But?" Rick asked.

"They're not safe for nursing moms. If we give it to her she won't be able to nurse the baby. And more than anything he needs her milk for these first few days. Her milk has tons of nutrients and antibodies that he needs so  _he_  won't get an infection."

Rick rubbed his eyes.  _Why does it always come down to this?_

"So you're saying, if I give her the antibiotics, Mhare can't nurse and he can get an infection or have other problems. What will happen if she doesn't get the antibiotics?" Rick asked.

Enid smiled a little when Rick said Mhare.

"Well, she may fight the infection off on her own, or… she could go into septic shock if it gets too bad."

"So, she could die?" Rick asked.

Enid wanted to tell him better news, after all his family had been through, but she had to be honest.

"If it gets bad enough, yes, she could die."

"Do you have other antibiotics you could give her that could be safe for Mhare?" Rick asked.

"No. But I could try just cleaning the wound every few hours, trying to keep it dry and keeping the drain in. We could try that for a while, and he can continue to nurse. If her fever starts getting bad, then we can move him to cow's milk and give her the antibiotics."

Rick nodded. That seemed like the most logical course of action. "Ok, we'll try that for now" he said. "Can I just get a moment with her?" he asked. "Of course" Enid nodded, and Rick passed her the baby. As she turned to leave she said to Rick, "And Mhare is a beautiful name". He nodded and she left.

Rick moved in close to Michonne's ear. "Michonne, it's me…" Rick's voice cracked and tears trickled down his cheeks. "Michonne, I need you pull through. You have to. I'm not giving you an option. Our baby boy Mhare, he needs you. He's a little warrior, but only you can give him what he needs right now. You have always been a fighter, you've been through so much. More than any person should ever have to go through, but I'll be damned if you get killed by an infection. That's  _not_  happening, you hear me? It's gonna be painful when you wake up, and you'll hurt really badly, but I'll be there for you and I'll help you through it. And I know if you just see Mhare, Michonne, if you just  _see_ him, you'll know it was worth it." Rick cupped her cheek and pressed his face against hers. "Please Michonne, sweetheart, I'm so scared. Please wake up."

It was silent in the room, and Rick continued stroking Michonne's hair and pressing his cheek against hers when Michonne let out a low groan. It was soft, but Rick heard it because he was standing so close to her.

"Michonne!" Rick called. Her face scrunched up and she let out a louder groan of pain. "Enid!" Rick called, and she came back into the kitchen, quickly passing Mhare to Rick. Michonne wasn't fully conscious, but she was groaning and it was clear she was in pain.

"Well it's a good sign that she's waking up" Enid said, "but it's going to be hard for her. She won't be able to move around for a while. C-sections are very painful, even with pain meds. I can't imagine without them."

As if to answer what Enid said, Michonne let out another groan, and her hands twitched, moving towards her belly. Rick grabbed her hand so she wouldn't touch the bandage, and that seemed to wake her up.

She opened her eyes, bewildered. "Hey baby! Just relax, relax, you're ok. It's ok. Welcome back."

She still looked confused as she stared at Rick. She opened her mouth to talk, but her mouth was so dry she just ended up coughing. The coughing caused her abdomen so much pain, tears came to her eyes. Rick quickly filled up a glass of water and brought it to her lips. She thirstily took a few sips before groaning again.

She tried to speak again. "Baby?" she rasped out.

Rick smiled and held Mhare up to her face. Her eyes got wide and she seemed to immediately forget about the pain. Rick placed Mhare's face right next to hers and she leaned over and gave the baby a kiss, tears trickling down her face.

"It's a little boy Michonne"

"Mhare" she whispered.

A grin spread across Rick's face. "You heard me?".

She smiled.

"Do you like the name?" he asked, a little nervous that she might not.

"Come" she said, and Rick moved in closer.

"it's perfect" she whispered, kissing Rick's cheek.

Rick laid the little boy on Michonne's upper chest, with his face up against Michonne's. To everyone's delight he grabbed her face with his little hands and began to suckle her nose causing her to giggle.

"Someone's hungry" Rick said.

"I want to feed him" Michonne said.

"Ok" Enid said, "but you won't be able to hold him in the normal way, we've just been putting him on your chest and letting him suckle that way. You won't be able to sit up yet with your wounds."

Michonne nodded, ignoring the searing pain in her abdomen.

Rick picked Mhare up again and laid him further down on Michonne's chest. The hungry baby automatically latched on to the nearest nipple and began to nurse.

"He's so tiny" Michonne said in awe, watching him while placing a hand on his back.

"But he's a fighter, just like his mom" Rick said, stroking Michonne's hair. "The knife cut him in the thigh, Enid had to give him stitches."

Michonne's eyes widened. "Is he ok?"

"Yes, he's fine. That's why I named him Mhare. But Michonne, your knife wound is starting to get infected. You're getting a little fever. Enid said that we have antibiotics but they're not for nursing moms. If you take them, you won't be able to feed him."

Michonne nodded. "Then I won't take them. He needs to eat."

"We'll just take it one step at a time. We'll see if the fever keeps rising, or if it goes down on its own, ok?" Enid said.

Michonne nodded and reached for Enid's hand. "Thank you, for saving my son, and my life. I had faith in you Enid and you came through."

Enid smiled. "I'll let you two have some time to yourselves with Mhare, and then I'll call the kids in in a few minutes ok? They will be thrilled to hear you're awake."

"Thanks Enid" Rick said, and she left.

They both looked down at their son in silence. "He looks just like you Michonne, look at those beautiful brown eyes."

She smiled and patted the baby's bottom. "He does, but I think he has your nose."

"Yea, maybe" Rick said.

The smile suddenly faded from Michonne's face, and Rick immediately knew what she was thinking. "He looks like Andre, doesn't he?" Rick asked.

Michonne's eyes glazed over with tears and she nodded. "I thought I've gotten to the point where I can think about him, and remember him, without crying. But seeing Mhare… he reminds me of Andre so much… I'm sorry."

"Don't ever be sorry Michonne" Rick said, wiping a tear away. "And we'll tell him about his big brother, and that he has a guardian angel named Andre."

She nodded. "He's so beautiful. He is worth everything."

They could hear the children squeal all of a sudden, and Judy say loudly "Can I go see her?". Enid must have told them Michonne was awake.

"Here comes the cavalry" Rick joked, as Joy, Judy and Tommy all thundered into the kitchen.

"Wait wait wait!" Rick said, halting their charge. "No hugs yet, ok? Mommy's still in pain. You can touch her arms."

Michonne shot a look of thanks to Rick, and then said to the children, "Hi guys, let me give you a kiss". Each of the children came over and she gave each of them a kiss on the forehead.

"Mommy we were so scared" Judy said. "We heard you screaming!"

"And Carl was scared too" Joy said.

"And the baby is so little, he's smaller than Joy's baby doll." Judy added.

Michonne looked at her girls and smiled. "I'm sorry I scared you. I was screaming because it hurt very badly. I'm still hurting, but I'm ok, and the baby is ok. And I'm proud of all of you for being so brave."

Rick said to the kids, "your brother's name is Mhare. It means warrior."

"Mhare?" Joy asked.

"Yes, do you like it?" Michonne asked her.

"Yea… it's alright I guess" Joy said unenthusiastically, causing Rick and Michonne to laugh, but the pain quickly forced Michonne to stop.

"What did  _you_  want to name him?" Michonne asked.

"Prince Eric" Joy said.

Judy laughed. "That's the prince from the little mermaid book I read to her"

"Hmmm… Prince Eric is nice, but I think we'll stick with Mhare" Rick said.

" _I_  like it" Judy said.

"Me too" Tommy added.

Carl, awoken by all the noise coming from the kitchen, made his way into the room.

"Mom!" he said.

"Hi Carl" Michonne smiled, reaching up an arm to wrap around his neck as he kissed her cheek.

"How long have you been up?" he asked.

"Just a few minutes"

"How do you feel?" he asked, but just looking at her face he could tell she was in a world of pain.

"I'll feel better in a few days, I'm just happy to be alive."

He nodded and looked down at his brother who was still nursing. "His name is Mhare" Rick said

"That means warrior, right?" Carl asked Michonne. Rick was surprised that Carl knew that, but he should have known that if Michonne was teaching Rick some words in Shona, she definitely was teaching Carl.

"Yes" Michonne confirmed "you have a good memory".

"That name suits him" Carl said, rubbing Mhare's hair.

There was a knock on the front door, and Carl could hear Lydia yelling "Get off of me!" from the porch. Rick and Carl ran to the door and threw it open to face three members of the defense team and 5 of Gregory's followers, who were holding on to Lydia.

"Get your hands off of her" Rick demanded.

"Who is  _she_? She definitely doesn't live at Hilltop, is this one of the Walker People?" the same man who had confronted Carl earlier asked.

Carl pushed past Rick and stood face to face with the man. "She's our guest, and if you don't take your hands off her, you'll end up with a stump."

The man opened his mouth to say something back to Carl, when Lydia slammed her elbow into his stomach and stomped on his foot to make him let go. He yelled out in pain as Lydia backed away, drawing her knife.

"Everyone just calm down" James, a member of the defense team said. "We didn't come here to start anything. Carl knows why we're here. We just came to take him in for questioning, that's all."

"What about that girl? Look how dirty she is, she's definitely one of the Walker People. She needs to be questioned too. For all we know she's a spy!" someone shouted.

"And that little Walker People boy too! It's his fault they even came here!" someone else yelled.

"You're not taking any of them" Rick said calmly.

"Look, I said I'd cooperate" Carl said "I'll go with you, but leave the rest of them out of this. They have nothing to do with this."

"Sorry Carl, but we need to talk to all witnesses, and they are witnesses. The rest of your family is too. We need to find out the whole story of what happened with Gregory and how these people got in the gates."

"Are you going to be questioning  _them_  too?" Rick asked, pointing towards Gregory's followers. "They fucking poisoned my son! They should be arrested."

"Rick, we will question everyone. I know you guys have a lot going on, I know your family was attacked" James said, pointedly looking at the missing door knob on the trailer, "and I know tensions are running high right now, but we are doing the best we can, and the investigation will be fair."

Enid suddenly came to the door, taking in all the people. "What the hell is going on?" she asked.

Carl, knowing that Enid was about to lose her cool, walked up to her and said "honey, they need to talk to me about… something. My dad will fill you in. I'm just gonna go with them and talk and then I'll be back. I love you, ok?".

Enid looked bewildered, and eyed Gregory's followers. "James, don't let those people near my husband. The last time they wanted to  _talk_  they drugged him and took him to the enemy." James nodded, and she turned to look at him. "And where  _exactly_  are you taking him?"

"We cleaned up the first floor of the big house, so we're doing questioning there" James said.

Enid nodded. "I'm gonna go check on Michonne and Mhare, and then I'll meet you there, Carl", and with that, she spun on her heel and reentered the house, leaving everyone outside staring after her.


	16. Chapter 16

"The Walker People girl and the boy need to come with us" James said.

"No" Carl said. "And their names are Lydia and Tommy. Look, I know you want to talk to them, but they don't know you, and they've been through enough. You can question them right here in the house. They haven't done anything wrong."

James looked at Carl and could see he was serious. Even though James was in his late thirties, Carl had trained him as a member of the defense team, and he had great respect for the teen. Out of his respect for Carl, he agreed.

"Ok, Benny will come back to talk to your family right here." James agreed.

Carl nodded and turned to follow his escorts back to the big house. Rick watched them walk away, concern written all over his face. He knew his son could handle himself, but he was still worried about his little boy.

He turned and entered the house, Lydia right behind him. Enid was pouring water into Michonne's mouth. She turned to Rick.

"Her fever seems stable. I need to get an actual thermometer to see how high it is, but it doesn't seem to have gotten any  _worse_. She needs to stay hydrated and she  _must_  eat. Try to get her to drink a half glass of water every hour if she can, and she can have some broth or soup, but she and the baby need nutrients. If she can eat something solid like crackers, even better. There are some in that cabinet over there."

"I need to get off this table" Michonne said, "My back hurts even worse than my stomach".

"Can I move her?" Rick asked.

Enid looked down at Michonne. "It's gonna hurt like hell, but yea, a bed would be much more comfortable. You can take her to my room, just be very careful with the stitches. I'll wait for you to move her before I leave."

"Where are you going?" Michonne asked, confused.

"They took Carl for questioning, and I'll be damned if my husband goes missing again."

"Questioning? For what?" Michonne asked.

"Carl killed Gregory. They may have a trial. They're going to come back and talk to everyone here about what happened and how the Walker People got into Hilltop." Rick explained.

Michonne sighed and rolled her eyes. She then turned to Enid. "It'll be ok Enid, Carl can handle himself, and they know how much Carl does for this town, and how crooked Gregory was."

Enid nodded.

"Ok, I'm ready to get off this table" Michonne said, looking at Rick.

"Do you need help?" Lydia asked.

"No, I got her" Rick responded, wrapping one arm underneath Michonne's upper back, and the other under her upper thighs, "Just hold my neck ok?" he asked Michonne.

She nodded and braced herself for the pain.

He lifted her as slowly and carefully as he could, but the act of shifting positions caused shooting pain in her abdomen, and Michonne bit her lip, trying to hold in the scream that was bubbling up inside her. She buried her face in Rick's chest as he moved her to Enid's bed, gently laying her down again. He looked at her face. Her eyes were closed and her brow was furrowed, with beads of sweat running down from the fever. There were teeth marks in her lip where she had been biting them almost until they bled.

"Michonne?" Rick called. She let out a breath and then opened her eyes to look at him. "I'm ok… that… was just intense. I'm not gonna be able to go home for a while will I?" she asked.

He rubbed her hand. "I don't know. But what's important is that you keep eating and drinking to keep up your strength, and for our baby."

Enid entered the room. "Are you ok?" she asked Michonne. Michonne managed a smile. "Yea. Go find out what's happening with Carl", she said to Enid. Enid passed Mhare to Rick and left.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So what happened Carl? From the beginning." James said, taking a seat in front of Carl. They were in Gregory's old office, but it looked very different from how it used to be. There were still blood stains on the floor even though it had already been mopped, it seemed the stains were there to stay. Many pictures had been knocked off the walls, either by walkers or Walker People, and Carl could count at least three bullet holes in the wall.

"After the funeral, Timothy, who I now know was one of Gregory's cronies, came to me and said that Gregory wanted to talk to me about sharing leadership of Hilltop. He said that his people would never accept me as leader, but if I partnered with Gregory, we could bring everyone together. I didn't trust Gregory for a second, but I decided to give him a chance, just in case he was serious." Carl shook his head. "I wish I listened to my wife."

"So Enid was there when Timothy said this to you?" James asked. Carl nodded. James scribbled something on to a piece of paper and then looked up again. "Ok, continue."

"I went to Gregory's house. There was a group of his followers there. Some of them were on the defense team, people I never suspected of being in league with him."

"Do you remember who was there?" James asked.

"Yea, I can give you a list" Carl said. "Anyway, Gregory said he was willing to share power with me. He said we had traits that the other lacked, and we could unite everyone… Something like that. I told him I'd think about it. He offered me some tea, and I took a sip… just a sip. Right after I drank it he let me go. I thought it was a little weird, but I wanted to get out of there anyway."

James nodded his head, scribbling a little more onto the paper.

"When I was walking home, I could feel something wasn't right. I realized I was poisoned. I tried to make it to the infirmary but I passed out, but before I did, Timothy and Maxwell showed up like they were just waiting for me. Timothy told me to 'just pass out already', and they dragged me off."

"So in your opinion those two men were waiting for you to pass out from the poison Gregory gave you?"

"Yes, they were. There was no other reason for them to be out there. And like I said, they dragged me off afterwards. I woke up in the Walker People camp, and Gregory was negotiating with Alpha. He told her that if she killed me in front of everyone, he would give her Omega… uh, Tommy. He wanted it to look like he had nothing to do with my death."

James' eyes widened. "Gregory said that?"

"Yes. The man was a snake." Carl said, getting angry.

"What did Alpha say?"

"Even  _she_  didn't trust him. She let him go, but I saw her send someone after him. Alpha stabbed me in the shoulder and gave me this cut on my face. She wanted me to give up Tommy, but I wouldn't agree."

"How did you get back here?" James asked.

"Alpha decided to attack Hilltop. She herded one of their walker herds to the tunnel, but Lydia, she helped me escape from them. I guess that person who followed Gregory figured out where the tunnels were. But I… oh shit!" Carl cursed, startling James a little. "I think I heard her say to divide the herd in  _half._  This was only half the herd… and there are still Walker People out there with the other half…"

James' eyes widened. "They can bring the other half of the herd in here!"

Carl leaped out of his seat, done with the questioning. They had bigger problems. "Go get the rest of the team now!" Carl said, "we have to go looking for those people before they come back. We need to end this. I'm going to gather as many fighters as we can, we can't do much with 5 people."

James nodded his head and ran off, listening to his leader.

Carl raced back towards home, meeting Enid who was walking towards the big house. She saw the look on Carl's face and stopped in her tracks. "What? What is it?" she asked.

"The Walker People may attack us again, they have more walkers, a second herd."

"What?!" Enid yelled.

"Go back to the house and tell my dad and Lydia I need them to come with us, I'm trying to gather everyone who is able bodied, we need to go find the rest of them. We need to end this now."

"O…Okay" Enid said, turning around and jogging back to the house. She opened the door, and walked past the kids who were playing another game of Candy Land in the living room. She knocked on her bedroom door, not wanting to interrupt Rick and Michonne. She heard Rick say "come in", and opened the door to see Rick feeding Michonne spoonfuls of soup from a bowl.

Rick looked at Enid and already knew something was wrong. "What is it?" he asked.

Not wanting to alarm Michonne, Enid gestured for Rick to come outside. He kissed Michonne's cheek and put the bowl down, following Enid out into the hallway.

"Carl said something about the Walker People having another herd, and they could possibly attack us again" she whispered, "he wants all able bodied people to go out there and find them before they come back. Where's Lydia?"

"She ran over to the infirmary to grab a thermometer, she'll be back any minute" Rick said, rubbing his eyes. "Ok, let me tell Michonne."

He went back into the room and Michonne was staring at him, she knew something bad was happening. "Is something wrong? With Carl?"

"No. He's fine. He thinks there's a chance the Walker People will come back. They have more walkers." Michonne's eyes got large. "We're gonna go out there and find them, and make sure they don't bring the walkers back here. You and Enid are gonna stay here" Rick said, pointedly looking at Enid. "No protests this time. You're the only doctor now, we can't risk you or your baby", Enid nodded.

They could hear the front door open and Rick knew it was Lydia coming back. She came back into the room and noticed the grim looks on everyone's faces. "What is it?" she asked, holding out the thermometer to Rick.

"Lydia, we need your help" Rick said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The team that was leaving the Hilltop was gathered outside of the big house. They had managed to gather 14 people in total, many of them had never fired a gun before, but they were picked because they weren't injured or too traumatized to go. They were discussing where the Walker People may have gone.

"I know where they  _might_  be" Lydia said. "The warriors who have escaped would surely have gone to collect the lowers and the herd from that clearing and moved elsewhere, that's what would happen if Alpha were still alive. But with Alpha, Beta, and Gamma dead, I don't know what they'd do now. Our society is based heavily on rank, and losing the top three uppers… It's never happened before. Technically, Epsilon is in charge."

"What can you tell us about Epsilon?" Rick asked.

"She is as vicious as Alpha, but not quite as smart. I think she has a fairly low IQ, but she is ranked so highly because she is strong and she respects authority. I don't think Alpha ever intended for Epsilon to be in charge." Lydia offered.

"How many people are left in this… tribe?" Iona, one of the defense team members asked.

"I'm not sure how many warriors were killed, but I'd say about 15 lowers were left behind."

"What's a lower?" James asked.

"They are those deemed too weak or sick to be of use to the group. Men who cannot defend themselves, women who are sick or injured, and children, although Tommy was our youngest."

"Are the lowers a threat to us?" James asked.

"If they feel  _you_  are a threat." Lydia said. She paused for a moment and looked around at the people gathered. "I know this group…  _my_  group, has hurt you. I understand you must make sure they will never attack you again. But I just ask that you treat them fairly. They are made up of people who were just looking for some place to belong. They didn't want to be alone out there. Like me. If they surrender, will you spare them? If they promise to never return, will you let them go?"

The group just stared at Lydia.

"Hell no!" Benny yelled. "Are you kidding me? I thought you said this girl was on our side!" Benny directed the last statement towards Carl.

"She is" Carl said, defending Lydia. "She saved my life. But she's right, about the lowers at least. If they surrender, we will show them mercy."

"They didn't show our people any mercy." Benny mumbled

"And if they promise to never return?" Lydia asked Carl, staring into his eyes.

"A promise doesn't mean shit" Iona said, "they could promise to never return and be back here tomorrow. In case you haven't noticed, a huge chunk of our population is gone and they know it. They could murder us all in our sleep."

"What if I had a way to guarantee they'd never be a threat again?" Lydia begged. "Then would you spare them? Alpha was misguided. She was cruel, and she taught them to be cruel too. But what can be learned can be unlearned. If I could guarantee they'd never attack again, would you spare them?"

Carl stared at Lydia. He didn't know why she had such a change of heart. Just that morning she seemed completely prepared to become a member of Hilltop and be one of them, and now she was trying to defend the Walker People.

"What kind of guarantee?" Carl asked her, but she didn't respond.

"Lydia?" he tried again, but she looked down at the floor, seemingly lost in thought.

"Um… Anyway" Benny said, dismissing Lydia's weird behavior. "I say we go back to that big clearing where the herd was, and start from there. Walker Girl here said that's where they'd go back to…"

"Her name is Lydia" Carl interrupted, but Lydia didn't even look up when her name was called. Carl was concerned, something was bothering her.

"I think It'd be wise to start from there" Rick cut in. "But we also need to find a way to destroy that tunnel. Now that  _they_  know it's there, it will always be a danger to everyone who lives here. I think we should leave through there and then collapse it behind us."

"We have a few grenades in the armory" Carl said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The team quickly prepared to leave to go searching for the Walker People. Carl jogged over to Lydia who was sharpening her knife with a rock.

"Lydia? What's going on with you?" he asked. "Why are you defending them all of a sudden?"

She continued to sharpen her knife, chewing on her lip. Carl waited patiently until she was ready to speak.

"If I didn't make that decision, to save you, I'd still be one of them. I would still be me, who you know me to be, I'd still be the person you called family today, but I'd be one of them. If Tommy hadn't run, he'd still be there too with the lowers. And you would slaughter us. Us and them, it's the same thing." She paused.

"They aren't all bad. They are just like your people, except Alpha found them first. I know that they have done horrible things under her orders, but I can stop it. I know how. I know how your family and they can both be safe."

Carl stared at Lydia. "How?" he asked.

Lydia ignored his question. "You have been kind to me Carl, kinder than anyone has been to me in a long time. I want you to know that you are family too."

Carl opened his mouth to respond to Lydia when James called "Carl, we're all ready, let's go!"

Lydia walked towards the rest of the group, and Carl followed behind her.

They made their way through the underground tunnel leading from the big house. After they came out the other side, Carl tossed two grenades into the tunnel, and everyone got as far away as they could. The explosion caved in the entrance to the tunnel. They would have to completely seal it off later, but for now that would have to do.

Lydia led the group through the forest, back to the clearing where her people had the herd. As they trekked, everything was silent. Eerily silent. The team of 14 was on high alert. Lydia listened for the calls that her people used to communicate with each other, various chirps and whistles that sounded like birds. She didn't hear any of the calls or the moans of walkers. It seemed like they were gone. As they approached the area, she could feel something was wrong. She held up her hand to stop the group. "Wait" she said. She searched the area with her eyes, and then looked up into the trees and her heart stopped.

Her people were in the trees, staring down at the group, bows and spears raised.

The Hilltop team raised their weapons. "No!" Lydia yelled, "don't shoot. Where is your Alpha?" she said to the Walker People.

"I am Alpha" Epsilon said, leaping down from a tree. "You and  _your_  people killed the uppers. I am Alpha now."

Lydia nodded. She put her knife into her sheath and motioned for the Hilltop team to do the same, although no one listened. "Alpha. Your conflict with the Hilltop people is done. Your former Alpha wanted Omega back, but she is dead now. She risked all of your lives for that little boy. Now that she is no longer here, you have a chance to be different, to do better. You don't have to carry on the way that she wanted. You can make your own way now."

Alpha stared at Lydia. "Alpha was good. She was strong. I will carry on her wishes. We will not stop attacking your people until they are dead. Until  _you_  are dead, traitor."

Lydia took a step back and pulled her knife again. "As you wish, Alpha. I challenge you."

 

_**Author's Note** : I want to give a special shout out to Jades who comments on every chapter of this story. Honestly I feel like you're the only one really reading this, but thank you so much for your support. Due to the seeming lack of readers and/or feedback I will finish this story but I will not post the most updated story of this saga on this website. If you would like to read more stories by me you can go to fanfiction.net my writer name is can08writer on there. All of my other works and the next story of this saga is on there. Thank you!_


	17. Chapter 17

It was already silent in the woods, but Lydia's words somehow made the silence unbearable. Carl could hear his heartbeat thundering in his chest. Lydia stood with her knife out, staring into Epsilon's eyes with a look of determination.

"You want to... Challenge me?" Epsilon asked, a little shocked. She seemed unsure of what to do.

"Yes. If that is the only way you won't attack the Hilltop." Lydia replied.

"I will crush you." Epsilon said, pulling her own knife.

"So be it" Lydia said, backing away to give herself room.

"Wait! Wait!" Carl yelled, terrified for Lydia.

Lydia, not taking her eyes off of Epsilon, held out her hand and said to Carl, "No. This is our way."

Carl understood, Lydia needed to do this. She was doing it for all of them. Carl and Rick glanced at each other, concerned for Lydia's safety, but they silently agreed to let her handle it.

"No one interferes" Lydia said to Epsilon.

Epsilon nodded and gestured to the Walker People who were in the trees. "Stay back" she ordered.

The women circled each other, trying to assess possible weaknesses. Epsilon was tall, much taller than Lydia, and she had much more weight on her, but Lydia was smaller and more agile. Lydia quickly noticed a blood stain on Epsilon's right arm. She had been injured.

_Good, at least I have a chance_ she thought.

Epsilon made the first move, running at Lydia and jabbing at her stomach. Lydia quickly spun out of the way, and turned around quickly, facing the woman again. Epsilon, not taking a pause, ran at Lydia again with a yell, swinging her arm through the air trying to slash at her. Lydia again spun out of Epsilon's reach, and attempted to slash Epsilon with her knife but missed.

Epsilon seemed winded already, and took a second to circle Lydia. But Lydia, seeing her opportunity to get some hits in, ran at Epsilon with her knife held high as if she were going to slash at Epsilon's face. Epsilon prepared to block her, but at the last minute, Lydia stabbed low, stabbing Epsilon in the thigh.

Epsilon yelled in surprise and stumbled backwards, and Lydia continued forward, slashing at Epsilon's neck, but the other woman pushed Lydia away, causing her to fall on the ground hard.

They both struggled to their feet, breathing heavily, adrenaline coursing through them.

"You stabbed me!" Epsilon gasped.

"That's what you wanted" Lydia said while trying to catch her breath.

Lydia took a few more seconds to get some oxygen before she launched herself at her again, grabbing Epsilon's injured arm and digging her fingers into the wound. Epsilon yelled in pain, throwing herself on the floor and straddling Lydia, trying to crush Lydia beneath her, but Lydia quickly stabbed her knife into Epsilon's other leg.

The woman screamed and tried to crawl away from Lydia, but Lydia jumped onto Epsilon's back, pressing her knife into Epsilon's throat and holding it there. Epsilon tried to throw Lydia off her back, but every time she did the knife pressed into her throat even harder, leaving a thin cut against her throat.

After a few seconds Epsilon stopped struggling, completely out of breath and unable to fight anymore.

Lydia looked up at the Walker People who were watching the entire fight from the trees.

"I won!" She yelled up to them, grabbing Epsilon's hair to make her point. "But I won't kill you" she said to Epsilon, "because our people need you. You are strong, you are skilled, you have talents that will help us survive. I'm going to teach you a new way to live."

Lydia grabbed Epsilon's knife and then let go of Epsilon's hair and hopped off of her back as the woman stared up at her in amazement through her mask. Lydia held out her left hand to help Epsilon up, while still holding her knife in her right hand in case Epsilon attacked again.

Epsilon stayed where she was, skeptically looking at Lydia's hand. She then pulled herself up to her knees as best she could with two stab wounds in her thighs. "If it pleases you to let me live, I will serve the Alpha." She said, bowing.

Lydia reached out her hand again and pulled Epsilon up to a standing position. She then whistled, and the Walker People climbed down from the trees, waiting for her orders.

"I am not your Alpha" Lydia said, and even with the masks on, Carl could see the surprise on the Walker People's faces. "I am Lydia, and we are going to change. We are going to be better than Alpha. We will not kill the groups we come across, unless they threaten us. We will not exploit those weaker than us. We will work together, and we will not attack the people of Hilltop."

Lydia then turned to Carl and Rick. "My people are no longer a threat to you. Will you let us go?" She asked.

"Lydia you don't have to go." Carl said. "I told you, you're family. You belong in a town where it's safe, with running water and medicine, and... and homes!" Carl said.

"We will find those things" Lydia said. "We won't live like animals anymore, but we don't belong in a town either. We'll find our own way."

Rick nodded his head and reached out his hand. "Thank you Lydia, for helping to save my wife, and my sons. My family owes you. I owe you. And you're welcome to come visit any time. If you ever need anything. Anything. Come back and find us."

Lydia smiled and shook Rick's hand. She then looked at Carl and he quickly hugged her, taking her completely by surprise.

"Be safe Lydia" he said before letting her go. She nodded and smiled. "I will".

She then turned and faced the Walker People. "We will get the herd, and go to our summer hunting grounds and we'll build our own community there. There are no more uppers and lowers now. Everyone is important, everyone contributes, and everyone has a name." She turned back to Epsilon. "What was your name? Before all of this?" She asked her.

Epsilon paused as if she really had to think about it. "My name was... Is... Daisy. Daisy Whittfield."

"Daisy. We are going to wrap up your wounds, and then we will go." Lydia said, patting Daisy's shoulder.

Carl turned to Rick. "I think we should go now."

"That's it? We're just gonna let them go? You trust them just like that?" Benny called to Carl. Carl turned to Benny. "I don't trust them, I trust Lydia." And he and Rick began to walk away with the rest of the Hilltop team following them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Enid sat in the living room of her home on high alert. Hearing that the Walker People had another herd and may possibly come back stressed her out to no end. Her gun was loaded and hidden in her back pocket, and although the children were unaware of the current danger, she was ready to usher them into the bedroom and lock the door if she needed to.

Enid had checked Michonne's temperature and was concerned that it was now 102 degrees. If it didn't go down by tonight or if it got worse they would have to revisit giving her the antibiotics, but rest and nutrients were the best thing for her. After Enid fed Michonne a few more spoonfuls of soup and changed her bandages, the sick woman had fallen asleep, and an exhausted Joy was more than happy to also curl up and take a nap next to her mom.

Enid was holding a sleeping Mhare, as Judy was giving Tommy a lesson on his A, B, C's. Living in the woods his whole life, the boy had never learned to read. He had never even seen a book being read. Judy, always the little teacher, took it upon herself to teach Tommy the alphabet. He was a quick learner and had already learned the alphabet song up to S. It warmed Enid's heart to see how close Judy and Tommy were getting.

Enid looked down at Mhare, sleeping in her arms. She smiled as the tiny baby yawned, showing his little pink gums, and then promptly went back to sleep. He was proof that even after the worst circumstances, there was hope. Even after being stabbed before he was born, he was alive and thriving. It made Enid feel like somehow everything would be alright.

Carl and Rick returned home an hour later without Lydia. They were enthusiastically greeted by Judy and Tommy, but Enid's mouth dropped open in horror when she noticed Lydia's absence.

"She's ok. She's alive. She decided to stay with her people... she leads them now." Carl said.

"What? She leads them?" Enid repeated, completely confused.

"She uh... challenged their Alpha and won. She decided to stay with them, they're not a threat to us anymore." Rick explained.

"She challenged their... she... she left?" Enid asked.

"It was her choice. She wanted to help her people create their own society." Carl said.

Enid nodded. Although she didn't understand Lydia's choice, she respected it. Lydia had proved she was capable of taking care of herself.

"So they won't come back? We're safe now?" Enid asked.

"Yea. Seems that way for now." Carl said, pulling Enid into his arms. He kissed her forehead and then took Mhare from her, kissing his forehead as well. He then passed his brother to Rick.

"How's Michonne doing?" Rick asked Enid.

"She's sleeping right now, with Joy. But I'm concerned about her fever. Last time I checked it was 102 and the knife wound is red and painful and dripping some pus. It's not looking good. Once she wakes up I'll take her temperature again, but we're probably going to have to give her the antibiotics." Enid said.

Rick looked down at Mhare. "Will he be ok?" Rick asked her.

"He's doing even better than expected. His color and breathing is good, and he doesn't have any infections." Enid explained.

"Will he be ok on cow's milk?" Rick asked.

"It isn't ideal" Enid said, " but Michonne's health is at risk. She can stop nursing just until the infection is under control."

Rick nodded. Michonne's health was what was important. Rick suddenly realized he hadn't slept in two days. A yawn escaped from his mouth.

"I'm gonna go check on her" he said, and he headed to the bedroom. He opened the door and saw Michonne laying on her back in the bed, her hair flayed out behind her on her pillow. One of her hands was resting on her belly while the other was lazily thrown across joy who was curled up beside her. Rick smiled at the scene and wished he had a camera to capture the beautiful moment.

He made his way over to the bed and slowly lowered himself down next to Joy, laying Mhare on his chest to keep the boy warm. Joy shifted in her sleep but didn't wake. Rick stretched his arm across Joy and rested it on top of Michonne's hand that was resting on her belly. Michonne didn't stir. He could feel her body was warm and she still had a sheen of sweat. He moved his hand up to her face and ran his hand down her warm cheek, observing how peaceful and beautiful she looked when she was sleeping. He put one of his hands on Mhare's back to keep the infant in place on Rick's chest, and he put his other hand on top of Michonne's again, and promptly fell asleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Two hours later, James showed up at the house. Carl opened the door and stepped on the porch, closing the door behind him.

"Look Carl... About Gregory..." James started.

"I want to have a meeting" Carl interrupted. "A meeting where I can tell everyone what happened all at once. I don't mind explaining what happened, but I won't do it over and over again, and I won't sugar coat it. Gather everyone together and I'll explain it to them, and you can decide as a town what to do."

"Carl I was gonna say, the defense team has been talking, and we decided not to have the trial. We aren't going to put you through that."

"What?" Carl said, completely thrown off guard.

"We trust you Carl. You've always done what was best for this town, I think anyone would agree with that. And it's obvious that Gregory was hiding many things, that tunnel being one of them, and he handed you over to the Walker People. After all you've done, the members of the defense team have decided not to prosecute you."

Carl was silent for a while, thinking. As much as James' words set him at ease, he was also bothered.

"What about Gregory's people?" Carl asked.

"Considering many of them claimed to be too injured or too traumatized to go with us to find the Walker People, I don't think they have much of a say in what happens now."

Carl smirked, but his smile soon wavered.

"No. The people deserve an explanation at least. Just because I'm liked doesn't mean I'm above the law. Have a meeting, I'll explain myself."

James looked shocked, but he quickly nodded in admiration.

"Okay Carl, we'll do it your way. I'll go door to door and tell everyone we'll have a meeting in an hour."

Carl nodded and turned to go back inside.

"Carl", James called. Carl turned around. "You're the most honest man I know. I mean that."

Carl nodded and turned to go back into his house.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

An hour later, Carl and Enid were at the town meeting, while Rick stayed home with Michonne and the kids. James had just explained to the townspeople that Gregory had been found dead in his home after the attack, and that Carl had confessed to killing him and the two men that were with him. James then said that Carl volunteered to explain what had happened to everyone, even after the defense team decided that he was justified in his actions. Silence fell over the crowd as they all practically leaned in to hear Carl's explanation of his actions.

Carl stood, and made his way to the platform, giving a quick glance to Enid who nodded to give him reassurance, before he began to speak.

"I know all of us have been through a lot in the past 48 hours. We've had two attacks on our town and we've lost so many people. The reason why I agreed to have this meeting is because I wanted to tell you the real story about how we were attacked, and what happened". He took a deep breath, reliving the events of the night before.

"After the funeral Gregory drugged me and tried to hand me over to the Walker People." The people gasped, and mini conversations popped up around the room.

"That's a lie!" someone yelled, "you were fine when you left Gregory's house!"

"Don't interrupt him!" someone else yelled.

"He gave me tea with poison" Carl said, getting angry at being called a liar, "I passed out in the street, where Timothy and Maxwell dragged me off. They took me to Alpha and Gregory made a deal with her, for her to kill me in front of all of you so it'd look like he had nothing to do with it. In exchange, he was going to give her back the little boy that was staying with us. It was a stupid plan. It wasn't well thought out. Alpha found out that Gregory had a secret tunnel that he used to leave Hilltop. She brought her army of Walkers through it. That's how they got in. It was Gregory that let them in here. His stupidity. He was a two timing snake." Carl said, anger coming off of him in waves.

"Lydia, one of the Walker People helped me escape. I came back here and they had attacked my house, stabbed my pregnant mom and almost killed her and her baby, and my sisters. She's still fighting for her life. They have killed so many of us, but if it wasn't for Gregory's tunnel they never would've been able to get in here. I went to Gregory's house to look for him. I knew he'd try to get out of this somehow and I was right. When I got to his house I heard him, Timothy, and Maxwell packing to leave here. They were going to just sneak out and leave you all." Carl sighed in frustration.

"Gregory didn't care about anything but being in charge. He already conspired with the enemy once, there's no doubt in my mind he would've come back with more people and taken Hilltop over by force if he had to. He could've used the tunnels he created. He was a threat, and I stopped him, and I'd do it again if it meant keeping my family safe… keeping all of you safe."

Carl looked at Enid and she smiled at him. The room was silent for a few seconds, people seemed to wonder if Carl had more to tell. When he didn't say anything, a man stood in the back. "What you're saying Gregory did is horrible Carl, but not completely shocking. I've lived at Hilltop since the beginning, when Gregory first became leader of the place, and all he's ever been concerned about is bossing people around. I don't think I've ever seen him hold a gun to protect this place. You know what I saw when I looked out my window, after that herd came through? I saw Carl and the rest of the defense team out there killing them walkers and protecting this place. That's a man I respect. I know there was no way in hell Gregory was gonna let a guy so young be in charge of Hilltop, and to be honest I'm glad that coward is dead. Carl's been protecting this place since he's got here, if he killed Gregory it's because he was dangerous."

There were a few head nods and claps.

"You're clapping because he murdered Gregory?" the woman who had first confronted Carl yelled. "He is admitting to murder!"

"Carl killed that man to protect everyone, including you! I didn't see Gregory trying to grab you and the rest of his followers before he turned tail and ran. He was gonna leave you to the walkers and the Walker People along with the rest of us!" the man responded.

The woman paused for a moment, as she thought about what this man was saying.

James chimed in, "The defense team is behind Carl, we were out there with him, fighting, and we trust his judgement and commitment to Hilltop. He is going to continue to be the unofficial leader until we can get candidates and have an election for a new leader."

There was silence again. Carl looked around and saw many people nodding their heads in agreement. Others were frowning and whispering to each other, while some just stared straight ahead, seemingly lost in thought or traumatized. As Carl surveyed the town he realized it would be a long road to getting this town back to its original glory. Practically every household had lost someone, a friend, a family member, a neighbor… the town was divided and grieving, but they would survive.

"I just want to say… we have a lot of work to do, to get back what we've lost in the past few days. It will be hard, but we can do it together. I've been through a lot in the past few years, we all have, but we're all still standing. If we become divided, if we can't work together past our differences and disagreements, we'll fall. That's not what those we lost would have wanted, that's not what Jesus would have wanted."

More people were nodding their heads, even some of Gregory's followers. Carl took a seat next to Enid, and James came back up to the podium. "The defense team and many other volunteers have been doing clean up, but we need everyone's help. No freeloaders, not anymore. Like Carl said, we have to do this together. We need to take back our community and get it running again. There will be defense team members outside, each is a leader for a different task we need help with. One is body disposal, two is wall defense, three is tunnel sealing, and four is repairs. We ask that everyone who is here join one of the four committees. Tonight we'll have a funeral for everyone we've lost. Thank you."

James stepped down from the podium signaling the end of the meeting. "You did great" Enid whispered into Carl's ear. He nodded and rubbed her hand, getting to his feet and pulling her up as well. He wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. He didn't feel like hearing or seeing any negativity from Gregory's people. As he led Enid to the door, he heard someone calling his name. Resisting the urge to ignore it and keep walking, he slowly turned and one of the townspeople clapped him on the back.

"Hey Carl, just wanted to let you know we're with you and your family. We all know Gregory was good for nothing, and after drugging you he deserved what he got." Carl gave a smile and nodded, thankful that someone was on his side. He continued to walk but was stopped again by another person who offered to bake some food for his family and to give their thoughts and prayers for Michonne and the baby. Two others stopped him to give he and Enid a hug, or to thank them for protecting the community. By the time they got back to their trailer, Carl was so moved he was on the verge of tears.

"See?" Enid whispered to him as they stood on their front porch. "They know who you are Carl, just like I do. They love you, most of them anyway…" she said with a wink, "just make sure to tell those women I had you first." She leaned in and kissed him passionately, and his whole body responded, yearning for her after everything that happened. Missing her. And suddenly they both remembered at the same time that his entire family was in his house, and Michonne would be in his bed for a while. He sighed. "This will have to wait" Enid said, kissing his nose, and they both entered the house hand in hand.

_A week later_

It took a week for Michonne to get to the point where she could sit up in bed and even walk short distances like to the bathroom with help. During that time, Carl, Enid, and Tommy had moved into another trailer in which the resident had unfortunately been killed by the Walker People. Mhare had gained a pound and now weighed a whopping 4 and a half pounds and was doing fine. Now that Michonne was able to sit up, Rick decided it would be best for them to return back to Alexandria. During the week, Rick had sent a rider with a letter to Glenn explaining everything that happened and why they hadn't come back from the Hilltop yet. Carl and Enid had also sent a letter to Glenn and Maggie announcing their pregnancy and telling them they would be coming to Alexandria a few weeks before Enid's due date just in case she went into labor early.

It was the morning that Rick and Michonne were heading home. Enid, Carl and Tommy had come back home to cook breakfast for the family before they left. Enid was making scrambled eggs and Carl was buttering toast as Michonne sat at the table. As she sat she couldn't help remember being cut open on to top of the table and a shudder ran through her body. Her hand moved to her C-section scar which was still painful if pressure was applied to it, but it didn't hurt nearly as much as the knife wound. The infection was almost gone, except for a red area directly around the cut. Tommy was washing dishes as Enid used them, and Michonne smiled as she observed the little family. She was so proud of Carl and the family he had made.

"I could butter the toast y'know, I wouldn't have to get up to do that" Michonne offered, and Carl and Enid both turned around to give her a look that said  _don't even try it._  Michonne smiled as they went back to their task. Rick came into the kitchen a few minutes later holding Mhare who was wearing a green onesie with a smiley face on his bottom. The onesie was way too big for the tiny baby, but it was one of the few infant clothes they could find in the town, and he would grow into it in a few weeks. Rick sat at the table next to Michonne, and Judy and Joy followed shortly behind him.

"That smells delicious Enid" Rick said. "Yep, and it's almost ready" she called, "Tommy can you set the table please?". Tommy set the table with plates and knives, and then quickly ran to hand everyone napkins and cups. "Wow, you did a great job setting the table Tommy" Michonne offered. He smiled proudly. "We've been practicing" Carl said, "Tommy has learned a lot over this last week. The boy is a genius, he can spell almost as well as Judy now too."

Judy smiled. "Spell car!" Judy challenged him. Tommy paused for a second and sounded it out. "Ccccc-arrr. C- A- R." Judy and Joy both clapped for him. Tommy, feeling extremely proud of himself volunteered "I can spell Carl too. C-A-R-L."

Rick ruffled Tommy's hair. "I bet the next time we see you you'll be reading books."

"Ok, food's ready!" Enid said. Carl put a plate of toast on the table, and Tommy took each person's plate to Enid so she could give them scrambled eggs. They all sat down together and were about to dig in when Michonne stopped them.

"Wait, wait…" she said. "I think we should say a prayer before we eat. I know we don't do things like that often, but we have a lot to be grateful for, and I think we should." Rick nodded and grabbed Michonne's hand as everyone around the table held hands.

"Dear God, thank you for the food that we're eating right now, I remember a time when we didn't have anything to eat. Thank you for the loving family that we have, some of us remember a time when we didn't think we had any family left…" Michonne quickly glanced at Enid and Tommy and Enid gave her a knowing look too, "Thank you for my life and recovery, and keeping all of us safe from harm. And thank you for Mhare being a healthy little boy. Thank you for everything that has happened to us that is good. Amen."

The rest of the family responded with Amen, and then they all started to dig in.

After breakfast they had to say their goodbyes, but no one was sadder than Judy and Tommy. The two clung to each other as if they didn't want to let go. "I'll see you in a few months when you come to visit ok?" Judy said. "Ok" Tommy said sadly. "Here" Judy said, shoving one of her books into his hand, "you can keep it. Practice so when I see you again you can read it to me!".

He smiled. "I will Judy".

They gave each other another hug and then Judy piled into the car next to Joy. Rick had already helped Michonne into the front seat with Mhare on her lap.

Carl, Enid, and Tommy stood waving, as the car made its way out of Hilltop, and headed home to Alexandria.


	18. Chapter 18

When the car finally reached the gates of Alexandria, Rick let out a deep sigh. He was glad to be home. He glanced over at Michonne who had fallen asleep with Mhare pressed against her chest and her mouth hanging open. He thought she looked beautiful. He glanced back at his girls who were also sleeping soundly, Joy had her mouth hanging open too and Rick smiled as he realized who she got that trait from. Rick honked the horn once, and the gates opened with a creak. The horn woke Michonne up and she sleepily glanced around. "We're home honey" Rick said.

She smiled. "Finally" she mumbled.

As they pulled into the gates they were shocked to see the whole town outside and waiting for them. "Did something happen?" Michonne asked, shocked, but when she spotted the smile on Maggie's face she knew that they were waiting for them.

Maggie threw Michonne's door open before the car had fully stopped and reached in to hug her. Maggie then squealed when she caught sight of the baby. "O.M.G, he's precious!" she exclaimed. Michonne passed him to her, knowing she probably would have snatched him up anyway. "What's his name?" she asked. "Mhare" Michonne explained, "it means warrior." Maggie cuddled the baby as Glenn shook hands with Rick. Rick moved to help Michonne out of the car, as Tara, Sasha, and Carol crowded around Maggie to see the baby. They then hugged Judy and Joy and Rick. Daryl came over and almost smiled as he watched the tiny baby squirm at all the attention. As the baby was passed into the arms of various family members, Maggie went over to Michonne. "I know you might not be feeling up to it, and if you're not it's ok, but we wanted to have a baby shower for you and Rick. I know you weren't expectin' the baby so early, and we weren't gonna have one for a few weeks, but I know there's some stuff you need and we all got you presents. It's been a while since someone's had a baby and we're all excited."

Michonne smiled. She was hurting badly from sitting in the same position for so long, but she was grateful for what Maggie was doing for her. "Thanks Maggie, I'm down for a party." She said. Maggie smiled and yelled to everyone "Michonne's in! Let's do this!".

Immediately music started blasting from the center of town. Someone was playing a car stereo loudly. Someone else came out from the houses and started tying blue balloons to the trees.

"Rick, you get her to the veranda, and we'll take care of everything else" Maggie said, sprinting off in the direction of the town center.

Rick and Michonne glanced at each other with a look that said  _you ready?_

They simultaneously smiled, and then Rick gently lifted her in his arms. He turned and called the girls who were talking to Glenn and Maggie's son, Hershel Jr. The girls followed them and they all headed off to the party.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The party was a great break from the craziness that had happened in the past week. Maggie and the others had prepared food and games. Michonne had laughed hysterically when Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Aaron, Eugene and three other men played a game where they had to stuff as many balloons under their shirts as possible and run a relay race. The first man to get to the finish line without popping the balloons won. She cheered as Rick made it across the line first, with Daryl on his heels, and she gave him a victory kiss that got slightly heated. "It's been a while" Rick whispered in her ear discreetly. "I'm up for it if you are" Michonne whispered back. "Let's get you checked out first by Winston" Rick said, and she nodded.

After the games it was presents time. Glenn and Maggie had given Rick and Michonne another crib, as the one that Judith had used had been passed around from community to community so many times it was in bad shape. It had been brought back when Joy was born, but then it was given out again. Daryl had found more cloth diapers which Michonne was eternally grateful for. Sasha had picked up baby clothes for a boy or a girl since they didn't know which the baby was. Rosita had given them bottles and a breast pump. Tara had gotten them one of the most helpful gifts, she had found a gag gift shop with a book of babysitting coupons and she pledged to babysit as long as a coupon was provided, no questions asked. Carol who had also traveled with Tara to the shop had gotten them cooking coupons, pledging to cook for them whenever they needed her to. She also snuck Michonne another present that she told her not to open until she got home. Michonne shot her a confused look, but knowing Carol, she knew it was probably something good. They received more presents, one from each person in attendance, and Michonne started to wonder where they'd put all of the stuff.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After the party, Maggie took Judy and Joy home with her to visit for a little while since Hershel Jr. had missed the girls so much. In the meantime, Rick and Michonne went to the infirmary. Winston checked out Michonne's incisions and was impressed. "Enid did an amazing job, especially with the C-section" he mused.

"Yea, she's really quite the doctor now" Rick said.

"The wounds look good, they're healing, you just have to be careful not to irritate them and keep them clean and dry. I have some Tylenol that you can take if the pain gets bad." Winston said. "So that's it on my part, is there anything else I can do for you?"

Rick and Michonne looked at each other, and Michonne gave Rick a look that said " ** _you_** _ask"._

"Um… we were wondering… if it is too early to… get back into the swing of things…" Rick tried.

Winston looked confused. "Get into the swing of what?"

"Well is Michonne able to do…  _thangs?_ " Rick asked.

Winston stared at Rick and then looked at Michonne as if maybe she would be able to clarify. Michonne rolled her eyes and smiled a little at Rick's failed attempt to talk about sex.

"Can I have sex?" Michonne asked bluntly.

Winston burst out laughing before he controlled himself. "Sorry… sorry…" he laughed. "Um… well… that's up to the two of you. If you're up for it you can, sure. Just be careful not to pull any stitches, and don't try anything too adventurous. Any pressure on your belly is going to be painful, but you know that already."

Michonne nodded, and gestured for Rick to help her off the table. "Thanks Winston".

"You're welcome, I'm glad Enid could help you when you needed her… and have fun you guys" Winston called.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick helped Michonne home and into bed, and then went to pick up the kids from Glenn and Maggie's house. When he got back, he gave Mhare to Michonne so she could nurse him before his bedtime, and in the meantime Rick got Judith and Joy washed up and into their pajamas. As they both lay in Judy's bed, Rick asked "Ok, who gets to pick the story tonight?"

"I do!" Joy said. "Daddy can you read me a story this time?"

Rick tried to hide his relief. Reading a book would get them to sleep faster. He had plans with Michonne later, and he wanted the children to be fast asleep when he was carrying out those plans.

Rick picked up the nearest book, "Where the Wild Things Are".

Rick began to read the story, acting out each of the characters as Judy and Joy listened intently. A few minutes in, Rick noticed both of their eyes were drooping. By the time he got to the last page Judy had fallen asleep and Joy's eyes were half closed. Rick put the book down, turned the light off, and lifted Joy into his arms, carrying her into her own room. He laid her in her bed and covered her with her blanket, where she curled into a ball and promptly fell asleep.

He closed both of the girl's room doors and quietly made his way into his own bedroom. He was slightly disappointed to see Michonne had fallen asleep as well, with Mhare in her arms. Rick lifted the sleeping baby and lowered him into the crib that Rick had set up in their room. He then shut off the lights, kissed Michonne's forehead, and laid down next to her, the tightness in his groin preventing him from sleep.

Around midnight, Michonne woke up with a start. She had had a nightmare, the first she'd had in a long time. She couldn't remember all the details, but she did remember that at one point she had been impaled on a giant shish kebab stick. She looked over at Rick in the darkness and could see he was sleeping with one hand on her hip and the other on his crotch, which she noticed was quite prominent under his pajama pants. She remembered why they'd gone to get a check-up from Winston.

_Shit. I left him hanging._

She smiled as she realized he didn't want to wake her up.  _How sweet_. But she had no problem waking him up.

She wished her ability to move was a little better, but she still wasn't completely healed. She struggled to turn on to her side so that her body was angled towards him. She then slowly pushed herself down the bed so that her head was lined up with his belly. She leaned over, and slowly moving his hand out of the way she licked his cock through his pajama pants. The sensation sent a jolt through his body that woke him up immediately. His eyes popped open and he looked down. Ignoring him, Michonne licked him again and then grasped his length with her mouth, moving her mouth up and down his shaft, still not removing his pants. He moaned and she could feel his cock harden through the fabric of his pants.

"Shit" he cursed silently. She pushed his pants down so she had full access to him, and she slowly wrapped her mouth around him, taking him all the way in. "Ohhhh…" he moaned, slowly thrusting into her mouth. "Mmmm…" she moaned. She missed his taste. It had been too long. She moved his cock in and out of her mouth, twirling her tongue around it, sucking on just the tip, and then swallowing the whole thing again. Rick lay on his back, his back arched and his eyes closed with his mouth wide open, moaning. It was a glorious sight. Suddenly she felt his hand in her hair.

"Wait, wait, wait" he said in a raspy voice, "I need to taste you". Michonne obliged, letting his cock slide from her mouth with a pop that made him twitch with need. But her needs were what was more important to him. "Don't move" he said, not wanting her to try to move upwards in the bed and possibly pull one of her stitches.

He slid down the bed to where she already was. Her legs were hanging off the end of the bed and he wasted no time bringing her legs over his shoulders and nestling himself between her legs. He kissed her inner thighs, causing her to moan and grab her breasts that were already full of milk. He purposely rubbed his stubble against her thighs and pussy, knowing that it drove her crazy, and he could feel her thighs clench around his face. He then dove in, greedily kissing and licking her pussy, sucking and pulling at her lips, nibbling her thighs, and then sucking her clitoris.

Her moans were becoming so loud he was afraid she'd wake the baby. He reached up and put a finger over her lips but was shocked when she put it into her mouth and sucked on it, causing his cock to harden even more. He let her suck his finger as he licked every inch of her pussy. He could feel her trembling and he put all his focus on her clit, clamping down on it with his tongue and not letting go. Her trembling increased and he could feel her thighs quaking. She grabbed his head and pushed it further against her, bucking against his face as she came violently. He licked up all the liquid that came from her as she laid back seemingly exhausted.

He started to crawl up the bed to lay next to her when she whispered "What are you doing?".

"I… I know you're tired…"

"Rick. You should know by now that I'm never too tired for you." She said, pulling his face down to hers and licking some of her wetness from his cheeks. "I want you inside of me".

He quickly obliged, positioning himself between her legs, but holding his full weight on his elbows and knees so that he wouldn't press down on her stomach. He entered her and the sensation felt wonderful for the both of them. As he thrusted, Michonne wrapped her arms around him, gently running her fingers up and down his back.

"Oh… I've missed this" she moaned.

"Me too" he replied, pushing himself into her harder.

"I love you Rick"

"Unh…. Uh… I love you Michonne"

"Rick?" she asked.

"Yes baby" he replied, feeling himself start to tighten up. He knew he would be done soon.

"I don't want to have another baby"

Her words totally threw Rick for a loop and he stilled inside her. She was staring into his eyes, trying to gage his reaction. He pulled up so he could see her face a little more.

"You don't want another baby?" he repeated.

"No" she said.

He went quiet, and then pulled out of her and rolled over with his back facing her.

"Rick?" she asked slightly hurt by his reaction.

"I… I understand why you don't" he said. "I get it. It's just… a little shocking to hear you say it out loud. To be honest, it makes me a little sad. I love our kids, and four is more than I ever expected. More than I ever hoped for. I just… I love having babies with you Michonne. I know it's selfish. Especially after what you've just been through. I just… I'm sorry, don't mind me. Whatever you want we'll do."

"Rick, look at me" Michonne said, resting an arm on his shoulder. He didn't move. "Rick please!" she begged, practically pulling him onto his back. He reluctantly turned towards her and she could see tears in his eyes.

"It's not about you. It's not that I don't want to have babies with  _you_  anymore. You know I do. It's just, I don't think I can handle more. My body can't, my brain can't… I told you before, when I had Andre, I was happy with just one. Now I have four, and I love them to death… but it's enough for me."

She took her thumb and ran it under Rick's eyes wiping away his tears.

"I know Michonne… I know. And I understand. I'm being selfish right now. It's just like… I feel a loss, knowing I'll never get to see another one of our beautiful children. I don't know why I feel like this… I'm not angry at you… I'm not disappointed at you… I'm just disappointed."

Michonne nodded. She understood the feeling. She leaned in and kissed Rick's lips and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. "I probably should've waited until we were done… huh?" she asked.

"Sorry" he whispered, looking down at his deflated dick. "It's ok. Until next time" she said, snuggling up to him. She rested her hands on his cheeks and he leaned his forehead against hers, and they fell asleep wrapped around each other.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Michonne woke up twice during the night to feed Mhare and change his diaper. Rick offered to get up but she didn't see the point seeing as though he couldn't feed the baby, so she let him sleep. When Rick did wake up he went downstairs to make breakfast for the girls and then he brought some upstairs for Michonne. With Carl no longer living with them, Rick had become a much better cook, and his repertoire included scrambled eggs, pancakes, and omelettes.

Michonne was thankful for the food, but was shocked when Rick didn't stay to eat with her. He gave her the plate of food and quickly grabbed his boots as if he were leaving.

"Where are you going?" Michonne asked, confused.

"I just need to take a walk. I'll be back in a little bit." He said.

Michonne felt panic rise up in her. "Rick, are we… are you ok?"

"Yea" he said, glancing back at her but not reaching her eyes, and then he closed the door behind him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne spent the rest of the morning in bed with her three children. She played Uno with Judy and Joy as Mhare slept on a blanket nearby. Michonne was actually surprised that Joy caught on to the game so quickly. Out of the 5 rounds that they played, Judy won two fair and square, Michonne won one, Michonne let Judy win one, and Judy and Michonne both let Joy win the final round. The girls soon got bored with Uno and Michonne let them go to their rooms to play. After they left her room, Michonne's thoughts wandered to Rick and where he'd gone. She knew he was still upset about her not wanting to have any more babies, but he said he understood.  _He said he was ok. What if he was lying? What if he hates me now?_

Insecurities began to flood her brain. She thought back to when they first came to Alexandria and Rick took plenty of walks. She knew that during that time he was carrying out a secret relationship with Jessie.  _What if he is sneaking off with someone? What if he's hiding something?_

Michonne had to consciously force those thoughts from her head.  _Rick loves you. He wouldn't do that. He's just disappointed, he said as much. When he gets home you'll talk and you'll solve this. Together._

Michonne jumped a little when she heard the front door open and close. She could tell from the footsteps that it was Rick. She could hear his boots go to the kitchen and the sink turn on. She then could hear him heading upstairs. Michonne sat on the bed staring at the bedroom door until she saw Rick enter the room carrying a bouquet of wildflowers in a vase with water. He paused when he saw her.

"Hi" he said. "Hi" she responded, looking at the flowers curiously.

"These, these are for you" he said, placing the vase down on the night table next to the bed.

"Thank you Rick, they're beautiful" she said, smiling at his thoughtfulness.

He sat down next to her on the bed, their thighs touching. Michonne could tell he wanted to say something, but she patiently waited until he was ready to talk.

"I'm sorry" he said, looking down at the floor. She was confused about why he was sorry, but she knew he would continue so she waited. "I went for a walk because I needed to think. I needed to know why I was feeling the way I did when you told me you didn't want any more children. Everything that you said made sense. We have four children already, its more than anyone could have hoped for. And it's hard enough raising one child in this world. You almost died bringing our last child into the world, you have every right not to want another. Yesterday I knew I was being selfish, and irrational, but I didn't understand  _why_  I was being that way."

He sighed and turned to her, taking his hand in hers. "I felt that way because… when you're pregnant…" he sighed again, as if he was ashamed to continue.

"What is it?" Michonne asked.

"When you're pregnant you need me. You need me to rub your feet, and wash your back, and tie your shoes. When you're pregnant I feel like I'm needed. And when you said you don't want to be pregnant again… It made me feel like I'll never be needed like that again. I… I know it's irrational, but that's why I reacted like that. I'm scared that you won't need me anymore."

Michonne stared at Rick, shocked by what he was telling her.  _Where did this come from? Why was he just saying this now?_

"Rick! Of course I need you. I need you every day. I couldn't raise these children without you."

Michonne slid closer to Rick on the bed and held his face in her hands. "I need you to hear me Rick Grimes. I need you, always. I love you always. If you want to rub my feet and tie my shoes when I'm  _not_  pregnant, be my guest. I won't complain. But don't you ever believe that I don't need you in my life. The strength that I have comes from the knowledge that you love me, and I have a family that loves me. You and the kids, you're who I fight for. You're who I live for. For this family, I would take on three warriors while pregnant, and have the baby ripped from my body, just so  _you_  don't have to lose a child. So my  _babies_  don't have to lose a sibling. I'd do anything for you. You should know that by now. But that doesn't mean I don't need you."

Rick nodded. "I know this. I know. I think this comes from Lori and Shane. I always felt like I wasn't good enough. Like she didn't need me if she had Shane to protect her. And you, you survived so long by yourself, you really didn't need anyone. And I keep thinking, why is this wonderful, strong, fearless woman with me? Why did she settle for me? Why did she agree to have babies with me? It's an insecurity that I've had for a long time, but this just brought it up, and I'm sorry. If we never have another baby, I'll still be happy with you. I love you Michonne, maybe even too much. So much that sometimes I have to remember that you're a human being and not a goddess."

Michonne cracked a smile at that last comment. "Well, you can call me your goddess if you really want to…" she mumbled softly, looking at his lips.

Rick chuckled and leaned in to kiss Michonne. "I love you my goddess" he whispered against her lips.

Out of nowhere, Michonne pulled away from him. "Oh! I forgot to open that gift Carol got us!" she quickly got up and reached into the top drawer of her dresser where she'd stashed the gift to open later. She unwrapped the present, and looked inside, pulling out a box of 30 condoms, KY jelly, and a bottle of spermicide, with a note that said:

_I don't know if I'm out of line, but I thought you might want these things. If not, you can return it to me, I can definitely put it to use elsewhere. Congratulations on the new baby! Carol_

Michonne turned to Rick in disbelief. "Sometimes I think that woman can read minds".

Rick chuckled. "Well, if anything, the condoms can get some use"

"We can save them for now" Michonne said, "I hear breastfeeding is a natural contraceptive".

"Reeeaaally" Rick said, slyly sidling his way behind Michonne. "A natural contraceptive you say? I'd like to test that theory" he said, nibbling on her neck and making her giggle. Rick's hand slid underneath her shirt and bra and wandered up to her full breasts, palming and squeezing them as he licked her neck and sucked on her earlobe. Rick pinched Michonne's nipples causing her to jump in surprise.

"Hey!" she said.

"Sorry" he murmured, kissing the back of her neck.

"No you're not" she responded, slamming her butt into his dick hard enough to make him gasp.

"Sorry" she said in the same tone he used.

He laughed and grinded himself up against her butt. "So you wanna be a bad girl?" he whispered in her ear in a voice that turned her on immensely. "Always" she growled, and his dick jumped at her tone. He walked her backwards over to the bed and pushed her into a sitting position.

"I like it when you're bad" he whispered, removing his shirt and pulling hers up over her head. He kissed her roughly and she nipped at his lips and then bit his bottom lip hard.

"Shit" he moaned as he pushed her backwards into the bed. She quickly removed her bra and threw it on the floor and he took the opportunity to lick her breasts that tasted sweet because of the milk that was in them. "Mmmm" he moaned, resisting the urge to suck them.

He moved his hand between her legs and could feel her panties were soaked through.

"Let's finish what we started yesterday" she urged, bringing her legs upwards and sliding them past his dick, checking how hard he was. She could feel his dick, fully erect, pressing against her leg.

"Yes ma'am" he responded, pulling down his pants and boxers in one tug, and quickly removing her of her panties.

He propped himself up again so that he wasn't resting his weight on her and he thrusted into her quickly, causing her to cry out in surprise. He immediately stopped. "Did I hurt you?" he asked, concerned.

"No" she said, "keep going"

He continued to thrust into her and she wrapped her legs around his hips to give him better access. She moaned at every thrust, enjoying everything he was giving her. Her moans were setting him on fire and he leaned down to kiss her passionately as he jabbed in and out of her.

"Yes Rick, yes Rick!" she called, pressing one hand against his chest, and grabbing his butt with the other. She then playfully smacked his butt, taking him by surprise. He looked down at her and she whispered with a smile "you said you liked it when I'm bad".

He laughed and held both of her hands above her head so she couldn't smack his ass again. He then leaned down and kissed a trail down her belly, purposely avoiding her scars. He then licked back up to her mouth and kissed her again as he continued to thrust into her. She could feel herself unraveling in pleasure and she closed her eyes to feel the sensation of her husband inside of her.

Rick looked down and watched his beautiful wife, with her eyes closed, moaning and writhing underneath him. He could feel her muscles start to stiffen and he knew she was close to an orgasm. He wanted more than anything to please her, to bring her body to ecstasy after the hell that it had been through.

"Come on baby, cum for me, that's it, that's it" he whispered in her ear. The deep raspy voice in which he spoke to her was so sexy her body clenched when she heard it. Within seconds she was shaking underneath him, her muscles clenching. The spasms in her belly hurt her knife wound, but she didn't care as waves of pleasure washed through her body. Rick came soon after, and when he was done he rolled over next to her, exhausted. When he finally caught his breath he glanced back over at her. She was lying flat on the bed with her arms thrown over her head and her legs stretched out slightly parted, and her eyes closed tight.

"Baby? How do you feel?" Rick asked.

"Like a goddess" she replied with a smirk.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Four months later_

Carl, Enid, and Tommy had finally arrived from Hilltop due to Enid's rapidly approaching due date. It was risky for Hilltop's only doctor to leave the town, but she had to take care of herself and her baby. In her absence, she had trained her nurse's assistant Amy to handle minor cases, the occasional cut or bruise, or a wound that needed bandaging.

Glenn and Maggie had an empty room in their house, so Carl and Enid were staying with the couple, and Tommy was sharing a room with Hershel Jr. They had been at Alexandria for a week so far, and Enid was too ready to give birth.

One night, the whole extended family was sitting together at Glenn and Maggie's dinner table sharing a meal. The night before, Maggie and Michonne had thrown a baby shower for Enid, and there was so much food left over that Maggie had invited everyone to finish it at her house the next day. As they munched on corn on the cob, and venison chili, Michonne looked around the table in contentment.

Rick and Glenn were sharing stories with Carl about the best way to be a supportive husband during childbirth, and Glenn was telling Carl to just "shut up, hold her hand, and don't touch her unless she tells you to". Rick nodded in agreement, bouncing Mhare on his lap, as Michonne laughed. Enid was talking to Maggie about how she couldn't wait to wear regular jeans again, as her one pair of stretch pants were so stretched from her growing belly that she'd probably never be able to wear them again. Judy and Tommy were excitedly discussing the pictures in one of Carl's comic books. Carl had read the book so many times that he'd given it to Judy, and Judy and Tommy had tried to read it together when he had finally arrived from Hilltop, but the words were so advanced that they settled for staring at the pictures. Hershel Jr and Joy, who were only a few months apart, had snuck away from the conversations at the table long ago after they had devoured their food, and they were playfully running around throwing stuffed animals at each other in the living room.

Michonne knew that she would have to get up and stop their boisterous behavior at some point before they broke something, but she took the moment to enjoy the normality of everything. The fact that her children could just be children warmed her heart. She smirked to herself and slid her hand under the table to hold Rick's hand. Distracted from his conversation, he turned to her and she gave him a smile. He leaned over and gave her a peck on the lips, and then continued his conversation.

Maggie asked Enid to pass her the bowl that had the corn on the cob so that Maggie could start washing the dishes. Enid couldn't reach it, and before anyone could stop her she stood up to get a better reach on the bowl when the sound of water pouring on the floor made everyone pause. Michonne thought Enid had knocked a glass over, and stood to get a towel when Enid looked down in surprise at the puddle on the floor.

"I think… my water just broke" Enid said, her voice trembling.

Carl popped out of his chair in a panic. "Um… ok… we… we've gotta get her to Winston… Where's Tommy? Tommy! Go get her bag from our room. Let's go! Why is everyone just standing there?"

Maggie, who was holding on to Enid, put a hand on Carl's shoulders. "Take a breath Carl, we still have some time. Enid, do you feel any contractions?"

Enid shook her head. "No… not yet… I just want to take a warm shower before I go to the infirmary. I think it'll help start the contractions, the infirmary is just down the block."

Maggie nodded. "I'll help you. We'll get you a quick shower and then we'll head down the block. Carl, you get her stuff ready, and someone should warn Winston she's coming."

"I'll help too" Michonne said, and each of the women grabbed one of Enid's arms. Enid looked at the panicked expression that was still plastered to Carl's face.

"Hold it together sport" she joked, repeating the words she said to him the first time they met, when he first came to Alexandria and almost had a panic attack when meeting teens his age.

A smile crept across his face and he leaned in to give her a kiss. "I'll get everything ready" he said as she was escorted off by Maggie and Michonne.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Seven hours later, Enid was in active labor, but making great progress. The head was visible, and Carl was by her side, holding her hand and keeping quiet except to give her words of encouragement, just like Glenn had suggested. Michonne and Maggie were each holding one of Enid's legs as she was exhausted by this time and could barely keep her legs up. Winston was waiting for the baby that was slowly making its debut.

"Ok Enid, just a few more pushes and baby Grimes will be here" he said excitedly.

"Ok… ok…" Enid said, trying to psych herself up to finish the arduous labor.

"You got this honey" Carl whispered in her ear, "almost done"

Enid pushed with all she had, squeezing Carl's hand and gripping the side of the exam bed. Carl studied her face and could see all the effort and pain she was going through to bring their child into the world. "Great job Enid, c'mon, keep pushing" he encouraged, and she pushed again, her face turning red from the effort.

She took a break to get some oxygen, and Carl wiped her forehead with a cloth. "Is it coming out? Is it almost here?" she asked hopefully. Carl moved around to the other side of her and saw his baby's face peeking out. He promptly burst into tears and held Enid's hand again.

"Yes honey, one more push and our baby's here". Enid nodded and gathered up her energy to push again. Maggie and Michonne encouraged her as the new grandmas leaned over to watch the little baby make its way into Winston's arms.

A loud cry announced the baby's arrival. "Is that… is that the baby?" Enid asked in shock.

"Yes, that's  _our_  baby" Carl cried.

"And it's a little girl!" Winston said happily, holding up the crying baby in front of Enid.

Enid reached out for the little girl and held her daughter for the first time while Carl cried hysterically next to her, stroking his little girl's curly hair.

"Oh my God, she's so beautiful" Carl cried, leaning down to kiss Enid's cheek and then the baby's.

Enid couldn't take her eyes off the squirming baby in her arms. "Hi baby!" she cooed "I'm your mom, and this is your dad". She looked up at Maggie and Michonne who were both crying but had stepped away to give the couple time to bond with their daughter. "And those are your grandmas, who will probably spoil you rotten" Enid joked. Both women chuckled. "And where's the grandpas? They can come in now."

Michonne went to get Rick and Glenn who had been pacing in front of the door for hours. When Michonne opened the door, both men froze and looked at her with wide eyes. "You can come in now" she said with a smile. Both men walked through the door with nervous looks on their faces, but when Rick heard the baby's cry he burst into tears. He looked at Carl who was also crying, and clapped him on the back, not needing to say anything. Glenn smiled at Enid, and went to hold Maggie who was also crying.

"I can't believe I have a little girl" Carl said in a daze. Enid smiled and looked up at him "Yea, little Carla will have you wrapped around her finger."

Carl's eyes got wide. "I was just joking when I said that, we don't have to…"

"I like it" Enid said "It grew on me. Carla Lori Grimes."

"Really?" Carl said.

"Really" Enid responded.

Carl leaned down and kissed his wife, never loving her more than this moment. As he gazed at his new family, he was never more optimistic about his future.

 

_**Author's Note** : I uploaded chapters 17 and 18 on the same day to finish this story. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who sent me a review to let me know that you enjoyed it. I am no longer posting my stories on this site due to the lack of feedback. I'm just personally getting nothing out of putting my stories on here, which is no fun for me. But if you'd like to continue reading my many other Richonne fics elsewhere, I am on fanfiction.net and my username is can08writer. Please review! Thanks._


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